Countrywide Financial Corp

With calls growing for stronger action to help troubled homeowners, consumer advocates are hailing a mortgage-modification program being implemented by Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide unit as the most ambitious effort yet to avert foreclosures. A key lawmaker is demanding that other mortgage lenders adopt the program, which was called for by a settlement of state lawsuits alleging that Countrywide borrowers were systematically tricked into taking out unaffordable loans.

A few years ago, Countrywide Financial Corp. was not only the nation's biggest home lender but also highly regarded -- an "apple pie" company, as a former marketer for the Calabasas lender recalls.

Countrywide Financial Corp. said it had reached an agreement for Angelo R. Mozilo to remain chairman and chief executive until the end of 2009. Mozilo, 67, who co-founded the Calabasas-based mortgage lender in 1969, had said he would retire in December but announced last month that he had changed his mind.

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. boss Angelo R. Mozilo, whose embrace of exotic loans helped fuel the mortgage boom and meltdown, will face Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges unless his lawyers prevail in an eleventh-hour appeal, people familiar with the SEC's investigation said Wednesday.

Angelo R. Mozilo struggled last week to bid farewell to No. 1 home lender Countrywide Financial Corp., the company he led for 39 years only to see it toppled by misadventures in high-risk mortgages.

Countrywide Financial Corp. is offering two years of free credit monitoring to customers whose sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, allegedly was stolen from the home lender's computer files.