Shares in Countrywide Financial Corp. fell more than 3 percent early Monday after the lender said more credit losses, a slowing economy and a sluggish real estate market have conspired to boost delinquency rates.

Investors are becoming concerned that the increased delinquencies may affect the pending $4 billion Bank of America Corp acquisition deal, which Countrywide agreed to in January and is expected to close sometime in the third quarter of this year.

The concern is focused on Countrywide’s $28 billion adjustable rate mortgage portfolio. The lender’s ARM investments that are more than 90 days delinquent have increased to 5.4 percent, a 900 percent increase from a year ago. Also alarming investors is that 71 percent of the ARM borrowers are making only the minimum payment while close to 80 percent of those loans did not require borrowers to verify any income, according to Countrywide.

More than $87 billion of Countrywide’s entire mortgage investment portfolio is backed by loans in California or Florida the two states that have seen skyrocketing foreclosure rates over the past few months.

The Calabasas-based lender said it has suffered from “significant disruptions in the U.S. mortgage market and the global capital debt markets” and noted that the company is hurting because “investor demand for non-agency mortgage-backed securities abruptly declined,” making it harder for the struggling lender to acquire capital.

Shares in Countrywide dipped 3.7 percent to $6.08 in early trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.