Countrywide Hires Ex-Prudential Bond Whiz To Develop Products for

Countrywide Credit Industries named bond expert Anand K. Bhattacharya an executive vice president and director of fixed-income strategies in its capital markets division.

Mr. Bhattacharya spent the last 11 months as managing director and head of capital markets at Imperial Credit Industries Inc. of Torrance, Calif. Before that he worked for eight years at Prudential Securities in New York, winding up as head of its fixed-income research group.

He has also worked at Franklin Savings Association and Pacific Merchant Bank.

Mr. Bhattacharya will report to David Sambol, head of Countrywide's capital markets division, and will be responsible for spearheading the unit's new product development.

The Calabasas, Calif., mortgage bank also reported another strong month for originations.

Countrywide funded $8.1 billion of loans in January, up 60% from last year. Its pipeline of loans at the end of the month totaled $14.7 billion.

"In a low-rate environment, our production operation has consistently outperformed by achieving high funding volumes that produce extraordinary current income," said Stanford L. Kurland, chief operating officer.

Refinance loans represented 64% of total fundings in January, up from 54% last year.

Despite the strong refinance market, the company's servicing portfolio continued to grow, reaching $212 billion on Jan. 31, up 18% from a year earlier.

The portfolio had a weighted average coupon of 7.5% at the end of January, compared with 7.8% at the end of January 1998.

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