19% of Countrywide's B&C Servicing Overdue

Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., reported Thursday that $22 billion, or 19%, of its subprime receivables are in some form of delinquency.The nation's largest mortgage banker -- and subprime servicer -- said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that late payments on its A-minus to D servicing portfolio spiked by 25% from the third to the fourth quarter. At year-end, Countrywide serviced $116 billion in subprime or "nonprime" loans. Countrywide said in the filing that 3.53% of the loans in its nonprime servicing portfolio are pending foreclosure. A year ago its B&C foreclosure rate stood at 2.93%. As of MortgageWire's deadline, the company had not returned several telephone calls.