LOS ANGELES - The chairman of beleaguered Countrywide Financial is taking more heat, this time over an e-mail.

The bank should walk away from the deal, an analyst says. BofA says the transaction will proceed. Countrywide Financial Corp. shares took a hit Monday after an analyst questioned the value and wisdom of Bank of America Corp.'s takeover of the Calabasas mortgage lender, but Bank of America insisted the deal would go through.

LOS ANGELES - Credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's today cut Countrywide Financial's rating to junk status, citing new concerns that Bank of America may not take on all of the troubled mortgage lender's debt once its proposed takeover of Countrywide closes.

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. , the second- biggest U.S. bank, said it may not guarantee $38.1 billion of Countrywide Financial Corp. 's debt after taking over the mortgage lender, increasing the likelihood of a default.

LOS ANGELES - Bank of America will expand efforts to help Countrywide Financial borrowers avoid foreclosure on trouble mortgages, a top bank executive said today.

In a hearing about its plan to buy Countrywide, the company will promise to help 265,000 troubled borrowers keep their homes and take other steps. Pushing to fast-track its takeover of wounded home-loan goliath Countrywide Financial Corp., Bank of America Corp. will promise today to help 265,000 troubled borrowers keep their homes over the next two years by refinancing or modifying at least $40 billion in mortgages.

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp., earned $10.8 million and cashed out $121.5 million in stock gains as his company got hammered by losses on sub-prime loans last year.

Beleaguered Bank of America Corp. shareholders pleaded Wednesday with the bank's chief executive not to proceed with a $4 billion acquisition of distressed subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

Beleaguered Bank of America Corp. shareholders pleaded Wednesday with the bank's chief executive not to proceed with a $4 billion acquisition of distressed subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. Shareholders told CEO Ken Lewis at the Charlotte-...

(AP) — Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will tighten its mortgage lending standards after it completes its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. later this year, and it will stop making one type of loan widely blamed for foreclosures. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's plans came as ...