The mortgage industry may be contracting, but No. 1 lender Countrywide Financial Corp. is making more loans, taking advantage of a period of turmoil to increase its market share, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Calabasas-based company said Wednesday that it funded $40 billion in loans in April, up 11% from a year earlier. Refinancings played a major role in the increase as many homeowners decided to trade in their adjustable mortgages for fixed-rate loans.

Countrywide, which recently eliminated about 3,000 jobs to cut costs, has also been hiring top salespeople at other firms in its expansion push.

Countrywide’s increase in lending came despite a 49% drop in loans to borrowers with tarnished credit or other issues keeping them from obtaining traditional bank mortgages.

The decline shows how Countrywide, like the rest of the industry, has tightened lending standards for high-risk borrowers.

Countrywide also reported a 60% decline in mortgages that give borrowers several choices on their monthly payments, including paying so little that the loan balance rises. Although Countrywide and most other lenders offer such loans only to borrowers with good credit, these payment-option mortgages also have drawn scrutiny from regulators and analysts because payments can increase drastically when the initial period of easy options expires.

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