Countrywide, the Department of Justice, and Rust are working cooperatively to identify borrowers entitled to payments from the settlement fund. The process of notifying borrowers likely will begin in the mid-to-late summer of 2012.

Individuals with questions about the United States v. Countrywide Financial Corporation settlement may contact Rust, in English or Spanish, by telephone at 1-800-843-5148 or by email at info@CWFLSettlement.com. The Department of Justice is in the process of providing Rust information about borrowers who have contacted the Department since it announced the settlement, and Rust will follow-up with those borrowers as appropriate.

The $335 million settlement fund being administered by Rust was created as part of resolving the United States' allegations that Countrywide Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against more than 200,000 qualified Hispanic and African-American borrowers across the country who received mortgage loans from 2004 through 2008, as well as allegations of discrimination on the basis of marital status by encouraging non-applicant spouses to sign away their rights in jointly-held property when the applicant spouse took out a loan in his or her own name.

The settlement, which was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, provides for an independent settlement administrator to contact and distribute compensation payments at no cost to borrowers whom the department identifies as victims of Countrywide's discrimination. Rust's activities will be overseen by the Department of Justice, and all of Rust's costs and expenses will be paid by Countrywide.

A copy of the United States' lending discrimination complaint against Countrywide, the approved settlement order, and additional information about fair lending enforcement by the Department of Justice, can be found on the Department's website at www.justice.gov/fairhousing.

The Department will make a public announcement when Rust begins to contact identified borrowers by mail and phone. Until that announcement, Countrywide borrowers should treat any mailings or phone calls that tell borrowers they must pay to participate in the settlement, or any unsolicited contact claiming to be related to the lending discrimination settlement, as a scam. Any potential scams related to the Countrywide fair lending settlement should be reported to Rust, or to the Department of Justice by telephone at 202-514-4713.

Today's announcement only addresses the selection of an independent settlement administrator for the Department of Justice's December 2011, $335 million settlement resolving claims that Countrywide discriminated in making loans. It is separate from the March 2012, $25 billion settlement between the Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 49 state attorneys general and the nation's five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure abuses. Individuals can obtain more information about that separate mortgage servicing settlement by visiting www.nationalmortgagesettlement.com. Countrywide borrowers whose loans are now serviced by Bank of America can contact Bank of America at 1-877-488-7814 to obtain information about loan modifications or other relief that they may qualify for under that separate settlement.