U.S. Rep. Frank: Hopefully There Will Be No Countrywide Soon

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House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to have oversight hearings over favorable loans offered by Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) to at least two U.S. lawmakers because the firm is being acquired, Dow Jones reports.


“The best thing for all of us is for Countrywide to just disappear,” Frank told reporters, noting that the firm’s acquisition by Bank of America (BAC) is expected to close in the near future.


“If Countrywide were a continuing entity we’d have to look at it, but they’re going out of business,” he added.


Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, also took the opportunity to support Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who along with Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., has been tied to a preferential loan program offered by Countrywide.


“I believe Chris Dodd when he says he didn’t know about it, I’m sure that’s true,” Frank said.


Dodd on Tuesday rejected the idea that he and his wife knew they were receiving special mortgage rates when they refinanced two loans with Countrywide in 2003. He did acknowledge that they were informed they were being placed in a “VIP program” by the mortgage lender, but said he thought it was a courtesy offered to long-time customers and not some form of preferential treatment.


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