Banks Scramble To Prevent Future Home Foreclosures

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis expects the economy to begin recovering from the housing crisis in the middle of next year.

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Bank of America last week became the biggest U.S. mortgage lender after completing the $2.5 billion acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. It plans to rework at least $40 billion in troubled loans over two years to keep more than 250,000 families in their homes, Lewis said. Foreclosure filings rose 48 percent from a year earlier in May as banks repossessed twice as many homes, RealtyTrac Inc. said in a June 13 report.

Deteriorating housing prices, rising unemployment and record oil prices pushed U.S. consumer confidence to a 28-year low last month. Lewis said that's the ``challenge we're facing as we work to revive our housing markets and our economy.''