Countrywide Benefits from Servicing Performance.

CALABASAS, CA -- Thanks to a strong performance in its servicing business, Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest lender, earned $722 million in the second quarter, a 27% gain compared to the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, Residential Capital Corp., the parent of the GMAC Residential family of companies, earned $548 million in the second quarter, an 82% improvement from the same period last year.

Compared to the first quarter, earnings at Countrywide rose about 6%. A nationally chartered bank, a majority of CFC's income ($630 million) came from its mortgage banking operations. Its servicing business had pretax earnings of $279 million in the quarter, a 213% gain compared to 2Q 2005.

Its production business had pretax earnings of $325 million in the quarter, a 21% drop from the second quarter of last year.

At the end of June, Countrywide's servicing portfolio topped $1.162 trillion, a 27% gain from the same period a year ago.

Until Wells Fargo's recent acquisition of $140 billion in ...