Nonprofits Complain about Countrywide Loss Mit Team.

WASHINGTON -- Nonprofits ACORN and National Training and Information Center increasingly are finding it difficult to work with the loss mitigation staff of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest residential servicer.

Countrywide - which has a subprime delinquency rate north of 20% - is telling investors and regulators that it has 2,700 employees working on loss mitigation, boasting that it completed more than 17,000 loan modifications during first nine months of 2007.

To CFC, these accomplishments might appear to be a success, but Michael Shea, executive director for ACORN Housing Corp., isn't so sure.

He says Countrywide is "clearly understaffed" and overwhelmed by the volume of troubled borrowers it's dealing with. He faults the company for failing to develop a streamlined loan modification program.

"If someone is current and they have a reset coming, we see Countrywide doing very little compared to other lenders," Mr. Shea told Mortgage Servicing News. "For borrowers already delinquent, they will do loan modifications, but it is often a struggle to get there. Often they capitalize the arrears or do a short-term modification." (Based in Chicago, ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.)

National Training and Information Center manager Michelle Rodriguez Taylor said that the communication it has had with Countrywide is "absolutely unacceptable."

Telephone calls are not returned and it is difficult to get anyone on the phone, she said. Documents have to be re-faxed because they often get lost, she added. "Countrywide is doing a lot of lip service but they are not following up or doing anything to really help homeowners," said Ms. Taylor.