Countrywide, America's biggest mortgage lender, has buckled under pressure from Washington and begun to offer borrowers who are experiencing difficulties with their repayments refinancing options.

The move to help borrowers with $16 billion (£7.8 billion) worth of outstanding home loans represents a victory for the US government who have urged lenders to help prevent property owners from losing their homes.

Countrywide said it had started to contact borrowers who had fallen into arrears and had offered modifications to the terms of their loans.

The mortgage lender has sold a swathe of mortgages to people on low incomes with poor credit histories, known as sub-prime mortgages. The loans had a tempting introductory interest rate which, over the past few months, has jumped and triggered a surge in defaults.

Countrywide said it is talking to borrowers whose adjustable rate has or will increase by the end of next year.

Borrowers had hoped that by the time the cost of borrowing rose, their property would have appreciated enough to remortgage at a manageable level. But the US property market has since sunk into its worst recession for 16 years.

David Sambol, Countrywide's chief operating officer, said yesterday: "Unprecedented times call for unprecedented remedies. We are determined to assist borrowers who have the willingness and wherewithal to remain in their homes, but need a little help to do it."

He said the lender would refinance about $10 billion in loans and modify another $4 billion.

The lender also plans to contact borrowers of some $2.2 billion who are late on their loan repayments. In total, the plan would help about 82,000 Countrywide borrowers with some kind of relief.

The rescue plan came as it emerged that the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy soared 23 per cent last month with homeowners fighting to prevent their homes from repossession.

According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, around 69,000 people applied for one of two types of bankruptcy, one of which protects homeowners from being evicted from their homes if they can present a feasible plan to keep on top of their debt repayments and have a regular income.

The Institute, a national non-profit research group whose members include bankruptcy attorneys, judges and lenders, said that more homeowners had applied for bankruptcy in states where the property slump was more severe.

The figures reveal the impact of the housing recession in America, where some states have seen the value of their homes slump by as much as 40 per cent. They also raise pressure on the US Federal Reserve Bank to cut rates again when it meets next week.

In September, the Fed reduced the cost of borrowing by a half percentage point to avert a deepening credit crisis in the US. It is expected that Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, will cut rates again before Christmas.

Over a nine-month period, the number of personal bankruptcies rose almost 45 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Traditionally, most borrowers who filed for bankruptcy, did so under Chapter 7 of the federal Bankruptcy Code. Under the provision, debtors have to give up certain assets, often a chunk of equity in their homes.

The assets are sold to pay off borrowings. Typically, while the measure stops the foreclosure process, it just buys a borrower time, and most lose their home.

However, according to the Institute, an increasing number of Americans are opting for bankruptcy under Chapter 13, where a homeowner is often given three to five years to stick to an agreed repayment plan and keep their homes.

Court papers in Washington show that the number of personal bankruptcies under Chapter 13 doubled in California during the second quarter of the year, rose by 40 per cent in Ilinois and 70 per cent in Massachusetts.

There are rising concerns that the blight affecting American property prices will travel across the Atlantic to Britain. Only last week, the International Monetary Fund warned that Britain was vulnerable to an American-style property slowdown, as it argued that homes in the UK were overpriced by 40 per cent.

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