Countrywide Fundings Drop

Countrywide Financial said in a meeting today that the mortgage loan fundings for September are 44 percent lower than September 2006. They are also now facing a potential federal investigation over the timing of it’s chief executive’s stock sales.

September mortgage fundings amounted to 21.2 billion dollars in 2007 and 38.1 billion dollars in 2006. This drop can be attributed to the rising delinquency and default rates that dried up the liquidity for subprime loans. To cope with this lowered volume Countrywide cut 4,935 jobs in September as part of their plan to cut 12,000 jobs. Still even more job cuts are expected over the next year.

Countrywide’s shares have fallen nearly 56 percent since January. Reports are that Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo sold 4.9 million shares of Countrywide worth more than $138 million between November 2006 and Augus.

Goto The Associated Press to read more about the Countrywide Sept. Mortgage Fundings Drop.