Countrywide Financial said today that it lost $893 million, or $1.60 per share, in the first quarter, compared to net income of $434 million, or 72 cents per share a year earlier.
The loss was driven by a $1.5 billion credit loss provision, up from $925 million in the fourth quarter and $158 million a year ago.
Charge-offs during the first quarter amounted to $606 million, up from $283 million in the fourth quarter and $39 million in the first quarter of 2007.
And the reserve for future credit losses was increased by roughly another billion dollars to stand at $3.4 billion at the end of the first quarter.
The company’s loan fundings improved on a quarterly basis, rising to $73 billion from $69 billion in the fourth quarter, but were still far below year-ago levels of $117 billion.
But average daily applications were at $2.2 billion, up 27 percent from the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, 30 day+ delinquencies continued to rise on existing loans, including subprime loans which rose to 35.88 percent, up from 33.64 percent in the fourth quarter and 19.62 percent a year ago.
Prime home equity loans deteriorated as well, with the delinquency rate rising to 8.29 percent from 7.32 percent a quarter earlier and 3.77 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
Countrywide’s total servicing portfolio had a delinquency rate of 9.27 percent, up from 8.64 percent in the fourth quarter and 4.90 percent a year ago.
More startling, however, is that 4.81 percent of their servicing portfolio is 90+ days behind, up from 1.70 percent a year ago.
The company’s loan servicing portfolio was valued at $1.48 trillion as of March 31, up from $1.35 trillion a year earlier.
Shares of Countrywide were up seven cents, or 1.20%, to $5.90 in late morning trading on Wall Street.
(photo: brooke)
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