Countrywide to offer mortgage refinancing

Associated Press Oct. 24, 2007 12:00 AM LOS ANGELES - Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said Tuesday that it will begin calling borrowers to offer refinancing or modifications on $16 billion in loans whose interest rates are set to adjust by the end of 2008. Its shares fell more than 4 percent. Countrywide has been under fire since early July.

It has had difficulties with loan financing, its chief executive has been criticized for selling hundreds of millions of dollars in stock, and it faces pressure from the government to help keep people from losing their homes. “Unprecedented times call for unprecedented remedies,” Countrywide President and Chief Operating Officer David Sambol said in a statement.

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