SAN DIEGO -- San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre Thursday called on the Bank of America to voluntarily stop foreclosures against certain properties within the city with mortgages held by Countrywide Financial Corp.

The City Attorney's Office last week filed suit against the bank, which bought Countrywide earlier this year as the mortgage crisis spun out of control. Aguirre alleged that Countrywide engaged in predatory lending practices in San Diego.

Aguirre sent a letter to the bank's Los Angeles attorneys – Paul McNamara and Brooks Brown -- asking for the foreclosure moratorium as "an act of goodwill," and not an admission of wrongdoing.

Aguirre said the bank itself was not guilty of wrongdoing, but was now "ensnared in the subprime mortgage crisis."

There was no immediate response to a late-afternoon call placed to Bank of America seeking comment.

Aguirre stated that because provisions of the $300 billion housing rescue bill signed this week by President Bush would not be implemented until next year, Bank of America could use the intervening time to negotiate with troubled homeowners to find solutions.

The bank was a major supporter of the rescue bill.

Aguirre said such a moratorium would apply:

if the property is the borrower's primary residence

the loan is an adjustable rate mortgage with an introductory period of three years or less

the loan has a teaser interest rate at least three percent lower than the fully indexed rate

the borrower has a debt-to-income ratio over 50 percent under the fully indexed rate, not the teaser rate

the loan-to-value rate is 100 percent, or the loan carries a substantial prepayment penalty

Aguirre asked that Bank of America make "reasonable" efforts to contact homeowners at risk of foreclosure, allow them to make "reasonable" payments, with any difference between the loans being added to the principle of the loan.