Countrywide Financial Hit by Credit Market Woes

Countrywide Hit by Credit Market Woes
By JAMES R. HAGERTY
August 9, 2007 8:23 p.m.

Countrywide Financial Corp. and other mortgage companies are facing "unprecedented disruptions" in debt and mortgage-finance markets that could hurt earnings and the company's financial condition, the Calabasas, Calif., lender said in a regulatory filing. (Read the SEC filing)

The statement was a supplement to the standard "risk factors" listed in Countrywide's 2006 annual report.

See the SEC filing from Countrywide Financial.The company, the largest U.S. home mortgage lender in terms of loan volume, said reduced demand from investors is prompting it to retain more of its loans rather than selling them. The company also has been shoring up its finances. "While we believe we have adequate funding liquidity," it said in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, "the situation is rapidly evolving and the impact on the company is unknown."

Payments were at least 30 days late on about 20% of "nonprime" mortgages serviced by Countrywide as of June 30, up from 14% a year earlier. Nonprime includes loans to people with weak credit records and high debt in relation to their income, as well as to people who don't document their income or assets. On prime home equity loans, the delinquency rate was 3.7%, up from 1.5% a year before. For all loans, the rate was 5%, up from 3.9%.

In a sign of the growing difficulty in selling loans, Countrywide said that it transferred $1 billion of nonprime mortgages from its "held for sale" category to "held for investment" in the first half. Countrywide marked the value of those loans down to $800 million. It also decided to retain as investments, rather than sell, $700 million of prime home equity loans, marking them down to $600 million. Countrywide has said many of those home equity loans were second-lien mortgages used by people who put little or no money down in buying a house.

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com