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Bank of America said it approved another 24,000 mortgage payment reductions in April, bringing its total effort under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program to 56,400 borrowers offered full-term assistance.

But the bank cautioned that it is seeing the beginning of a decrease in the number of active trial modifications, in part because of stricter HAMP requirements.

New rules requiring financial information before a borrower can enter the trial modification period “will slow the inflow of new trial modifications.”

Bank of America claimed the most active trail modifications as of HAMP’s March update with more than 283,000. Wells Fargo was second with nearly 145,000. But Bank of America’s share of those eligible that are in active modifications was only 26 percent, compared to 38 percent for Wells Fargo and 37 percent for JPMorgan Chase.

Under HAMP guidelines, Bank of America is also notifying customers who did not meet eligibility requirements for HAMP or who did not meet the requirements of their trial period plan.

The bank is mailing letters to thousands of these customers, telling them they are not eligible to complete a permanent HAMP modification.

“We are letting customers know that we may explore other homeownership retention options, depending on individual circumstances and investor guidelines,” said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation strategies executive for Bank of America Home Loans.

The bank said it has completed a total of 600,000 modifications in foreclosure mitigation efforts since January 2008 “through all available programs.”