Countrywide Financial Corp. will pay back minority borrowers who were unfairly overcharged as part of an agreement announced Tuesday with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Under the terms of the agreement, released by Spitzer, Countrywide Home Loans Inc. will enhance its fair lending monitoring activities, and will institute a $3 million consumer education program to help consumers make more informed choices about mortgage loan products.

Spitzer’s office initiated the inquiry last year after reviewing federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data showing that Countrywide’s black and Latino customers were more likely than its white customers to receive high-priced loans in New York during 2004.

Spitzer’s office then conducted a study that it said determined black and Latino borrowers, regardless of credit scores, paid more on average than whites for their mortgage loans, especially for those generated by brokers.

The agreement requires the nation’s largest mortgage lender to expand its monitoring of loan offers, including broker pricing decisions. Compensation will be based on a case-by-case review of minority customers given sub prime and other costlier loans in cases where similarly situated white borrowers were given cheaper, prime loans.

The Calabasas company also will have to pay the state of New York $200,000 for the cost of the investigation.

Shares in Countrywide were up 65 cents to $40.63 in early trading Tuesday.