Bank of America Corp modified U.S. mortgages at a slower rate in June under the government's primary program to stem foreclosures, due to changing program requirements, the company said on Tuesday.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender modified 72,000 loans in the first six months of 2010 under the U.S. government's Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP.

The pace of loan alterations, however, will slow in the coming months as the government has established new standards for the program, including different underwriting and documentation rules, that the banks must now adopt, the company said.

During this transition period, we anticipate a slower rate of growth in the number of completed HAMP modifications, said Rebecca Mairone, Bank of America Home Loans' default servicing executive.

The June figure is 9,000 higher than the 63,000 year-to-date modifications reported in May, the company said.

But the May figure excluded 7,000 HAMP modifications completed that month that were not properly reported to the U.S. Treasury, which monitors the program.

Bank of America said it had completed nearly 17,000 mortgage modifications under its own private programs in June and 88,000 this year.

Since January 2008, the bank has modified 650,000 customer mortgages through a mix of government and company-driven programs.

Under HAMP, banks modify customer mortgages' interest rate and monthly payment over a three-month trial period, after meeting certain hardship and documentation qualifications.

If the borrower is able to meet the modified mortgage's requirements during the trial period, the bank can then permanently adopt the new payment parameters.

Shares of Bank of America were down 1.3 percent at $13.44 in early New York Stock Exchange trading.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Mortgage Bank of america