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New York -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed Countrywide Financial Corp.'s long-term issuer default rating of "A" and short-term issuer rating of "F1," the rating agency said last month.
The ratings affect approximately $34 billion of debt and $57.5 billion of deposits.
The ratings reflect Countrywide's leadership in the mortgage banking industry, good financial performance amid sector weakness, and diverse funding profile augmented by deposit growth at Countrywide Bank FSB, Fitch said.
The rating agency also said that Countrywide's "macro-hedge" strategy, relying on mortgage servicing to offset cyclical slowdowns in loan origination volume, has "delivered consistent operating performance over multiple cycles."
However, Fitch ...