WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Countrywide Financial Corporation today joined with credit and homeowners' counselors, mortgage servicers and secondary market investors in announcing the formation of the HOPE NOW Alliance, a collaborative effort formed with the encouragement of the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The HOPE NOW Alliance brings together the resources of the public, non-profit and private sectors in addressing the challenges facing homeowners who are experiencing financial distress and allows for the sharing of best practices to engage customers who are at risk and pursue options to avoid foreclosure.
"We have 2,700 trained professionals on our homeownership preservation team who work tirelessly to keep our customers in their homes," said Angelo Mozilo, Chief Executive Officer of CFC. "We are excited about this new effort to leverage the collective expertise of the public and private sector to help as many families as possible achieve sustainable homeownership."
The HOPE NOW Alliance members will work together to explore several ways to reach at risk homeowners including a national direct mail campaign that will encourage them to contact their lender or a credit counselor.
"Engaging our customers early in the process if they are experiencing financial hardship allows us greater flexibility in finding solutions to keep them in their home," said Steve Bailey, Senior Managing Director for Loan Administration. "So far this year, Countrywide has helped over 40,000 people stay in their home and this effort is designed to greatly increase that number."
In addition to the campaign to raise awareness about reaching out for assistance for at risk homeowners, the Alliance will work to improve communications between servicers and non-profit counselors to speed outreach and to develop and explain options for at risk borrowers. The Alliance will also develop standards with investors to enable counseling sessions for homeowners to be funded by servicing contracts.
If you are a Countrywide customer and you are experiencing difficulties in making your mortgage payments you should call Countrywide immediately at 800-669-6650. The Alliance is encouraging any homeowner who is in distress to call their lender as soon as possible or go to the HUD website http://www.hud.gov/ or http://www.mymoneymanagement.net/ to find non profit credit counselors. Consumers can also find information on these resources at http://www.hopenow.com/.
About Countrywide
Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation is a diversified financial services provider and a member of the S&P 500, Forbes 2000 and Fortune 500. Through its family of companies, Countrywide originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services residential and commercial loans; provides loan closing services such as credit reports, appraisals and flood determinations; offers banking services which include depository and home loan products; conducts fixed income securities underwriting and trading activities; provides property, life and casualty insurance; and manages a captive mortgage reinsurance company. For more information about the Company, visit Countrywide's website at http://www.countrywide.com/.
