honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, September 14, 2007

Countrywide gets $12 billion in new credit lines

By E. Scott Reckard
Los Angeles Times

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Countrywide has added $12 billion to its emergency line of credit, but it provided no details on which banks would provide the new loans.

ASSOCIATED PRESS LIBRARY PHOTO | August 2007

spacer spacer

Countrywide Financial Corp. eased fears of a crippling cash shortage by lining up $12 billion in new financing — which boosted its shares nearly 14 percent yesterday — but it didn't stem harsh criticism of its practices.

Countrywide, which earlier this year drew down an emergency $11.5 billion line of credit from a group of banks and last month received a $2 billion investment from Bank of America Corp., disclosed the new credit lines in one sentence in its monthly report on operations.

The company provided no details on which banks would provide the new loans or on what terms.

Investors gave the Calabasas, Calif.-based company — the No. 1 mortgage lender in the United States — a vote of confidence about its chances for surviving an industry downturn that has put scores of smaller lenders out of business. Countrywide shares rose $2.31, to $18.93, in trading yesterday.

Lawmakers and state and federal officials weren't as pleased as investors, urging Countrywide to explain the practices that caused a surge in foreclosures and to clarify how it planned to address its problems and those of its borrowers.

"Now that Countrywide is having success obtaining credit, the onus is even greater on them to clean up their act," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., of the Senate Banking Committee, calling on the company to "be part of the solution by refinancing the bad mortgages they made."

North Carolina Treasurer Richard Moore, who oversees a pension fund that owns $11 million in Countrywide stock, said he was concerned that the company had shoveled out risky adjustable mortgages to borrowers who couldn't afford them while enriching Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and stock-option profits.

In a letter to Countrywide lead director Harley W. Snyder, Moore cited reports that the company had rewarded employees for steering customers into subprime loans with rates that shot up after two years and required borrowers to pay hefty penalties if the mortgages were paid off early.

Countrywide said Moore's concerns were based on inaccurate information.

The company prohibits steering customers who qualify for prime loans into subprime mortgages and doesn't pay higher commissions on subprime loans with prepayment penalties, it said in a statement.

The statement said Countrywide was proud of its "extraordinary efforts" to help borrowers struggling with loan payments.