The beat-up shares of Countrywide Financial Corp. tumbled 14 percent yesterday on reports that the FBI has opened a criminal inquiry into whether the home lender misled investors about the quality of its mortgages and its financial condition.

The decline suggests investors are skeptical that Bank of America Corp. will proceed with its $3.7 billion acquisition of Countrywide, but a spokesman for the bank said the deal was on track.

Meanwhile, a representative of the FBI's Los Angeles office challenged the reports, which appeared over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, of a preliminary inquiry by the FBI's New York office and Justice Department officials into possible securities fraud at Countrywide.

Countrywide stock sank 71 cents yesterday to $4.36, its lowest close in nearly 13 years. The stock is down 88 percent in the past year.

FBI officials in Washington declined to comment, and an FBI spokesman in New York didn't return phone calls. But Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles office, called the reports "just wrong."

"If there's any inquiry to be opened, it's going to be out of this office," she said.