Talk:Countrywide Financial

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Business and economics Portal
This article is within the scope of the Business and Economics WikiProject.
B rated as b-Class on the assessment scale
Mid rated as mid-importance on the assessment scale

Contents

[edit] Cleanup

OK Wiki experts...what's left to clean up in this article? 66.214.86.9 00:18, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Additional class action lawsuit information:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/125003.htm - August 14, 2007 - filing of a class action representing shareholders against management. Additional reference: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-schatz-nobel-izard-pc-announces-class-action-lawsuit-/2007/08/15/2863398.htm

http://originatortimes.com/content/templates/standard.aspx?articleid=1096&zoneid=5 - May 31, 2005 - $30 million settlement of a previous class action lawsuit about working conditions. Additional reference: http://wagelaw.typepad.com/wage_law/settlements/index.html. (Commentary: "We had never actually seen or heard of a company paying out $30 million to settle a meritless claim, so we looked more closely at the case. After reviewing the facts and the publicly available evidence, we still think we've never seen or heard of a company paying out $30 million to settle a meritless claim.")

http://www.alta.org/indynews/news.cfm?newsID=465 - June 7, 2004 - fraud lawsuit against Countrywide regarding closing costs on mortgages

Are all the risk factors from the company's current annual report reflected in the article?

Is there publicly available information about the company's participation in the trend towards outsourcing IT work to India?

VisitorTalk 06:30, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Logo cleanup

The Countrywide Home Loans (CHL) logo is helpful, but not quite correct. CHL is actually just part of Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC) (along with Countrywide Bank, etc.) It would be better to use a CFC logo. Anyone have one uploaded? 76.172.194.56 (talk) 06:36, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV / timeliness issues

The first part of the article reads a bit like a company press release and fails to cover the type of mortgage lending CFC was engaged in(subprime? alt-a?). Also because the financial info ends in 2005, everything looks hunky-dory. I am not suggesting a YTD analysis, but updating to 2006 would help some. Usspequod 05:28, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

2005 is pretty old--there's been one 10-K and a couple of 8-Ks since then, so newer data are definitely available. Sciprogrammer 08:08, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
A quick look turns up many recent SEC filings--there's plenty of recent data. Here's a link to the latest quarterly report [1]. Sciprogrammer 08:16, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Countrywide has a comprehensive investor relations area on their website, including free download of annual reports in pdf format. According to the 2006 annual report, Consumer Markets Division, which handles primarily "A-paper," funded $119 billion; Full Spectrum Lending Division, which handles primarily subprime loans, funded $35 billion; Wholesale Lending Division, which handles both prime and subprime loans through a network of brokers, funded $89 billion; and Corresponding Lending Division, which purchases both prime and subprime loans from other originators, funded $187 billion.

Page 6 of the annual report (page 8 of the pdf) states, "It is important to note that Countrywide is a mortgage lender, not a monoline nonprime lender. Our objective is to participate in all segments of the broader mortgage market, but limit our nonprime exposure. Nonprime loans comprised only 9% of our total production in 2006. Moreover, our strategy is to sell the nonprime loans we produce, primarily through the process of securitization." This is part of Countrywide Chairman Angelo Mozilo's letter to shareholders. VisitorTalk 22:41, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

This 9% amounts to say $40 billion dollars, which the securities holders will be really unhappy about losing. The "A-Paper" mentioned was given by the rating agency that was paid for by CFC. This rating scheme is a hot topic. Many jumbos are no longer sufficiently collateralized by the properties. Read recent CFC statements on impairment. This has gone a long way to to undermine the confidence in the secondary market, and, ergo, CFC's liquidity. The wisdom of the marketplace is strongly at odds with the 2006 annual report.Usspequod 03:27, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
This article needs to be completely rewritten in light of recent news reportage starting with Gretchen Morgenson's multi-page Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree, New York Times, 2007-08-29. As to subprime lending ref, my bad; please substitute jumbo, non-conforming, over 95% loan to value mortgages, which are subject to higher delinquincy or declining property values. Usspequod 23:08, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Peacock?

In re: edit 23:05, 25 August 2007 Hu12 (rmv peacock): In order to understand their large part in the current secondary mortgage crisis, I have tried to state the magnitude of their involvement. These crises have aleady amounted to about $1 trillion in emergency liquidity from central banks. To not mention this is like leaving out any one of National City Bank (New York City), Morgan Bank and Chase Manhattan out of the events leading to the Crash of 1929. Significant rewrites are needed for WaMu and numerous investment banks.

In my view, the existing article, already contains peacock in mentioning its run up in stock value. The rest of the article reads like a submission to the SEC or to stock holders putting its best face forward to the regulators and others. This bland reportage is singularly uninformative while ignoring the real problems of the company.

Is the following any better?

"In 2006 Countrywide financed about 17 to 20% of all mortgages in the Unites States, at a value of about 3½% of United States GDP, a proprtion greater than any other single mortgage lender."

Usspequod 19:03, 26 August 2007 (UTC)