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(AP Photo/Paul Salkuma, file)
Tom Callan reporting
Bank of America and Countrywide are now married, merged into one big player. But there were signs of the engagement last summer.
Bank of America pumped $2 billion into sinking Countrywide last August, a possible telltale sign of the merger. "They wanted to, basically, protect that $2 billion investment," Wells Fargo economist Kelly Matthews said.
Matthews says he doesn't know if the bank had plans to gobble up Countrywide last summer, but the deal will bring stability to the roiling mortgage markets. "This was, basically, the biggest player in the marketplace. What was their future going to be?" he said.
So Countrywide stays afloat, but if you are falling behind in your mortgage, the big deal won't relieve your headache.
