Countrywide Mortgage Loan Volume Increases in February

America’s largest home loan lender, Countrywide Financial, said it made around $35 billion in mortgage loans in February, according to reports.

This represents a 10 percent increase on the same month a year earlier.

The California mortgage firm said that its loans made to less credit-worthy borrowers fell by $200M to $2.6B, reflecting a trend of mortgage providers tightening the reins on underwriting standards a bit.

David Sambol, President and COO of Countrywide, said in a statement:

“February mortgage loan fundings were $35 billion, up 10 percent from the same period a year ago. Importantly, retail volume was up 11 percent year-over-year, demonstrating the positive impact from our retail sales force growth initiatives.”

The troubled mortgage company saw other encouraging signs.

“In fact, Countrywide captured the number one spot in retail originations for the fourth quarter of 2006 according to Inside Mortgage Finance.”

Last week, Countrywide, America’s fourth-largest bad credit mortgage lender, confirmed that it had cut 108 sub-prime jobs in its wholesale lender unit.

Sub-prime lenders, often known simply as bad credit mortgage lenders, specialize in providing loans to clients with a poor credit history.

Countrywide Mortgage said that its foreclosure rate continued to rise, reaching 0.70 percent in February, up from 0.47 percent a year ago.

The percentage of home loans that were at least 30 days past due jumped to a five-year high of 4.71 percent, compared with 4.29 per cent in February 2006.

In early morning stock market trading, Countrywide Mortgage shares were trading down 2.6 percent at $35.16 in New York. We’ll monitor this situation as it continues to develop.