Savings And Loans

Struggling thrift Downey Financial Corp. said Monday that it succeeded in stanching a recent outflow of deposits. But the lender warned that if cash began to flee again, it could face a hard time lining up new sources of capital. Newport Beach-based Downey, parent of Downey Savings & Loan, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that "the bank experienced elevated levels of deposit withdrawals" after June 30, when deposits totaled about $9.8 billion.

The depressed stock of Newport Beach-based mortgage lender Downey Financial Corp. crumbled below $1 a share Tuesday after the company formally warned that it could be seized by regulators if it can't get an infusion of capital by the end of the year. Downey so far hasn't seemed a likely candidate for government help because the Treasury is aiming its massive financial bailout at lenders that have the best prospects for survival.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, received approval to become a savings-and-loan holding company, placing its operations under supervision of a single federal regulator. The move will consolidate the Calabasas-based lender's federal supervision under the umbrella of the thrift regulator. The lender's Alexandria, Va.-based Countrywide Bank subsidiary will convert to a federal savings bank, the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a statement released Monday.

washington -- Mortgage troubles slammed the savings and loan industry last quarter, according to a report released Tuesday. Troubled assets -- loans that are 90 or more days past due -- jumped to $14.2 billion last quarter, up 50% from $9.5 billion in the same quarter last year, the Office of Thrift Supervision said.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, has told regulators that it wants to apply for a federal savings bank charter so it could work with one U.S. regulator instead of two. If the change is approved, the Countrywide Bank unit would become a federal savings bank, and the parent company would convert to a savings and loan holding company, the Calabasas-based lender said in a statement Friday. The Office of Thrift Supervision would be the sole regulator of both.

Federal regulators said Friday that they had allowed four thrifts besides failed IndyMac Bank to improperly backdate infusions of capital. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, did not identify the four S&Ls. The thrift regulator is an arm of the Treasury Department. The Times reported Dec. 23 that Treasury investigators had found that Darrel W.