Update: Countrywide to rework up to $16 billion in loans

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Breaking news item from Bloomberg: ‘Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, may change terms on $16 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages before the end of 2008 so borrowers won’t lose their homes to foreclosure.’

More: ‘About 52,000 customers who hold subprime loans can refinance into prime and government-backed loans, the Calabasas, California-based company said today in a statement.’

--Update: Here’s the Countrywide press release describing the program.
--CNBC headline: ‘Countrywide Offers Help For 82,000 Borrowers’
--Reuters via CNBC: ‘It announced the program as pressure mounts on the mortgage industry from politicians and consumer groups worried about rising foreclosures to clean up lending excesses, and make only home loans that consumers can afford in the first place.’
--CNBC blogger Diana Olick observes that Countrywide is ‘saving its own skin’ -- because sub-prime loans are failing at a far higher rate than Countrywide or any other big financial firm has admitted -- but is also doing the right thing.

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Photo Credit: EPA via Los Angeles Times.