Countrywide - has a heart and a brain?

I was at a friends today helping him paint his house. You see he is heading for foreclosure and wanted to make a good impression putting his home on the market to try to sell it. His adjustable rate had raised his payment over $1,000 over the past 18 months and there was no way he could keep up.
Today as we pulled out our paint cans a Fed X truck pulled up and delivered a letter. We were expecting the worst as he opened the letter, but much to our surprise Countrywide had offered a huge olive branch. They offered to take his adjustable rate mortgage back to the start rate of 6.5% and fix it for the next 5 years effective immediately. On top of that they are willing to talk to him about working out a payment plan for any unpaid balance to get caught back up. Had he been transported to the land of OZ and received a gift from a benevolent wizard? No, this was Countrywide!
As we sat with our mouths agape we thought "what has the world come to when a mortgage company would voluntarily fix our rates and give up over $1,000 a month in interest payments?"
Tomorrow my friend will call Countrywide to see what they offer via re-payment of his back mortgage payments. I will keep you up to date as to what they say.
Has Countrywide become the wizard of OZ and given them selfs both a heart and a brain? The scarecrow and tin man may be out of luck, but it looks like my friend is the beneficiary. Let's hope more lenders follow suit.