Countrywide denies bankruptcy rumors

CALABASAS, Calif., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Countrywide Financial Corp. Tuesday said it was not filing for bankruptcy amid speculation that the U.S. mortgage lender needs billions of dollars to survive.

"There is no substance to the rumor that Countrywide is planning to file for bankruptcy," the Calabasas, Calif., company told MarketWatch in an e-mail.

Countrywide also said it was unaware of any leading rating agencies considering whether to downgrade the company's financial ratings.

Countrywide, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, has been slammed by the subprime credit crunch. The company stopped offering many types of more profitable but riskier home loans, focusing now on selling mortgages conforming to standards of government-sponsored entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"Countrywide is severely challenged and might falter if it does not receive an infusion of at least $4 billion within the next couple of weeks," Egan-Jones Ratings Co., a ratings agency, told clients Tuesday.