Another loss for US mortgage firm

Countrywide was almost bankrupted by the US housing crisis

Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender, has posted a third consecutive loss as borrowers failed to keep up with their home loan payments.

It made a loss of $893m (£452m) in the first three months of 2008, bringing total losses to more than $2.5bn in the nine months to the end of March.

Countrywide has been hit hard by the US housing market downturn and has agreed to sell itself to Bank of America.

The results were worse than analysts had been expecting.

Countrywide took more than $3bn of charges for writedowns and bad loans.

The company said about one in 11 borrowers overall and more than one in three sub-prime borrowers have fallen behind on home loan payments - both nearly twice as many as a year earlier.

Sub-prime loans are those offered to people with poor credit records or unpredictable incomes.