Countrywide Officially Surpasses $1 Trillion Mark.

Calabasas, CA -- For years, it seemed likely that someday, some firm would someday grow a mortgage servicing portfolio to $1 trillion.

But until recent months, few expected it to happen this year. Now, Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest originator and servicer of home loans, has reached that milestone. Countrywide reported servicing a home loan portfolio with a principal balance $1,020,416,000,000 at the end of August. That's more than seven million home loans.

But the company didn't get there by organic growth alone. While Countrywide has long prided itself on growing its business internally while many rivals turned to the merger and acquisition market for growth, Countrywide has been an active buyer of mortgage servicing rights this year.

Through the first eight months of the year, Countrywide reported purchasing servicing rights on "bulk" portfolios totaling $43.2 billion.

Countrywide said that at the end of August, its home loan receivables under management had surpassed $1 trillion, an increase of $255 billion, or 33%, from 12 months earlier.

Mind you, a $255 billion mortgage servicing portfolio in itself is enough to earn classification as a "mega-servicer." Now, Countrywide has grown by that much in just one year.

"Being the first servicer to reach $1 trillion in loans serviced is one of the great milestones in Countrywide's history," said president and chief operating officer Stanford Kurland, in a company news release.