Countrywide to reimburse customers

Hartford (AP) - Connecticut officials say the new owners of Countrywide Financial Corp. have agreed to pay the state $350,000 and reimburse customers who had to freeze their credit after a massive data breach.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell said about 30,000 people in Connecticut were affected.

"Our settlement provides consumers with powerful protection against identity theft -- freezes that foil thieves by blocking new credit in a consumer's name," Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal said Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide last year, has agreed to reimburse customers for the cost of freezing their credit to prevent identification fraud.

The $350,000 paid to the state will go into its general fund.

Federal officials last year charged a former Countrywide analyst and another man in an alleged scam to sell data from as many as 2 million customers of the mortgage lender.