Countrywide May Trim Up To 12,000 Workers

Countrywide Financial Corp., addressing what it calls "changing market conditions," said late Friday that it will lay off 10,000 to 12,000 workers over the next three months, or 20% of its work force.The story was broken by MortgageWire on Sept. 4. Countrywide also repeated that it will only originate loans that can be sold to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or insured by Ginnie Mae. It also said that it hopes to migrate "almost all" of its residential production into its thrift affiliate by the end of September. In a recent interview with National Mortgage News, Countrywide founder, chairman, and chief executive Angelo Mozilo said the current liquidity crisis is one of the worst he has seen during his five decades in the business. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company can be found on the Web at http://www.countrywide.com.