On the eve of a Senate vote and with the measure facing likely defeat, CUNA today said it was withdrawing from negotiations on the measure to allow bankruptcy judges to rewrite the terms of mortgages.

"We are gratified that we influenced a number of improvements to the legislation by our commitment. However, we finally came to a point where the negotiations could not produce a bill that met everyone's concerns and still pass the Senate. Given this, we have suspended negotiations on the judicial mortgage modification provisions," CUNA President Dan Mica said in a statement.

Sources said there were several areas in which they couldn't reach agreement, most notably how to handle second mortgages on primary residents. Although the Obama administration issued rules on modifying those mortgages yesterday, negotiators couldn't come to an agreement on how they would be handled in bankruptcy proceedings.