This is for Natalia... ----------------------------------- Countrywide Treats Bankers to Ski-Resort Trip 22 February 2008 The Wall Street Journal <javascript:void(0)> The U.S. home-mortgage industry is in the dumps. That doesn't mean the party is over for mortgage bankers. Countrywide Financial Corp. <javscript:void(0)> , the nation's largest mortgage lender by loan volume, will host about 30 representatives of smaller mortgage banks for three nights next week at the Ritz-Carlton <javscript:void(0)> Bachelor Gulch ski resort in Avon, Colo. At one of the country's most-glamorous skiing spots, a regular room on a weekday starts at $750. The first items on the agenda for guests arriving Monday evening: Cocktails and ski fittings. Next is dinner at the Spago restaurant, whose menu includes Kobe steak with wasabi potato puree for $105. (For the budget-minded, pan-roasted buffalo filet with Kabocha pumpkin flan is $54.) The annual event is for bankers at correspondent lenders, which originate loans and then sell them to Countrywide. The Calabasas, Calif., lender is paying for hotel rooms, meals, skiing and tips, according to a program distributed to attendees. The schedule calls for four-hour business meetings Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, followed by skiing and dinner. Those dinners are at Zach's Cabin, where diners arrive by sled, and at Larkspur in Vail, Colo., where the menu includes California farmed Alverta President caviar, listed at $140.50. Many companies entertain business partners in luxurious settings, of course. But this event stands out because of the company's circumstances. Countrywide's board agreed last month to sell to Bank of America Corp. <javscript:void(0)> for about $4 billion, less than a fifth of its market value 12 months earlier. Rising defaults and falling home prices led to losses of about $1.6 billion at Countrywide in the second half, and the company has reduced its work force by 11,400, or 19%, since July. Countrywide's servicing arm, which collects payments and handles other administrative tasks, has about 90,000 loans in foreclosure, or 1% of the total. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who has been pushing Countrywide and others to do more for people facing foreclosure, called on Countrywide to cancel the trip and devote the money to refinancing distressed homeowners. A Countrywide spokesman declined to comment. The company has argued in recent news releases that it is making efforts to keep distressed borrowers in their homes. Among those are agreements with nonprofit consumer-advocacy groups to negotiate loan workouts for borrowers. A Bank of America <javscript:void(0)> spokesman declined to discuss Countrywide's hospitality. ---------------------------------------------
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