Countrywide Receives S & L; Approval

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Countrywide Financial Corp. received approval Monday evening to become a savings-and-loan holding company, placing its operations under supervision of a single federal regulator.

As part of the change, the lender’s Alexandria, Va.-based bank subsidiary will convert to a federal savings bank, federal savings-and-loan regulators said in a statement.

Regulators approved the change based on Countrywide’s plans to make mortgage loans and provide credit consistent with the “safe and sound operations” of a savings and loan, regulators said. The move was a cost-cutting and consolidation move by the Calabasas-based lender, which is the nation’s largest.

Countrywide has been required to report similar data to two separate government agencies: the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversaw different parts of the company’s operations.


Shares in Countrywide were up $2, or nearly 6 percent, to $37.20 in afternoon trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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