About 30,000 Texas homeowners could be helped by Countrywide Financial Corp.'s decision to settle fraud complaints against it by cutting the amount borrowers owe, as well as their interest rates, to the tune of $8.4 billion.

Texas is one of 11 states that have reached an accord with Bank of America, Countrywide's new owner.

The plan includes a freeze on foreclosures for borrowers likely to qualify until Countrywide has determined who is eligible, the bank said.

Various options will be considered for dealing with about 400,000 customers affected in the different states, with bank employees instructed to first consider a refinance into a fixed-rate Federal Housing Administration loan, according to Benjamin Diehl, a California Department of Justice attorney specializing in lending abuse.

The agreement resolves lawsuits filed by attorneys general in California, Illinois, Connecticut and Florida, as well as in Texas and six other states.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Monday that the settlement will allow many homeowners to keep their houses through such measures as lowering their monthly payments, reducing interest rates and waiving late fees.

"This agreement not only assists homeowners, but also helps shore up communities and markets that have been affected by the residential mortgage lending crisis," he said.

Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said the bank wasn't admitting or denying wrongdoing.

The package announced Sunday will probably become the largest predatory lending settlement in history.

"Countrywide must now bail out homeowners it recklessly misled into mortgages doomed to fail," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement Monday.

Elizabeth Ferrer, the bank's president for Florida, said people likely to qualify will be contacted starting Dec. 1.

Staff writer Terrence Stutz and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.