Thursday, February 15, 2007

Countrywide Financial Acquires Assets of CCM, LLC

CALABASAS, California

February 13, 2007

PR Newswire

Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) today announced that one of its subsidiary companies has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets and assume certain liabilities of Chicago-based CCM Futures, LLC ("CCMF"). CCMF, an independent Introducing Broker for futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association.

The acquisition, expected to close later this month, further solidifies Countrywide's strategic focus on diversifying revenue streams. "The acquisition of CCMF will strengthen our existing futures Introducing Broker business by expanding our product line and customer base, while diversifying our revenue streams," said Ron Kripalani, president and chief executive officer of Countrywide Capital Markets, and executive managing director of Countrywide Financial. "The futures trading industry has grown impressively and continues to demonstrate very attractive prospects for generating fee-based income for our Capital Markets business segment. The addition of CCMF's capabilities to our existing activities provides economies of scale, as well as synergistic opportunities with our primary dealership in U.S. Treasury and our derivative trading operations," added Kripalani.

"Countrywide's reputation and financial strength will provide us the foundation to accelerate our growth and give our clients access to products we could not previously provide," said Michael Crane, president of CCMF. "I'm very excited about the opportunities this combination brings to our clients and brokers."

Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation is a diversified financial services provider and a member of the S&P 500, Forbes 2000 and Fortune 500. Through its family of companies, Countrywide originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services prime and nonprime loans; provides loan closing services such as credit reports, appraisals and flood determinations; offers banking services which include depository and home loan products; conducts fixed income securities underwriting and trading activities; provides property, life and casualty insurance; and manages a captive reinsurance company. For more information about the Company, visit Countrywide's website at www.countrywide.com. This press release does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding management's beliefs, estimates, projections, and assumptions with respect to, among other things, the Company's future operations, business plans and strategies, as well as industry and market conditions, all of which are subject to change. Actual results and operations for any future period may vary materially from those projected herein and from past results discussed herein. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated include, but are not limited to: competitive and general economic conditions in each of our business segments such as slower or negative home price appreciation; changes in general business, economic, market and political conditions in the United States and abroad from those expected; loss of investment grade ratings that may result in an increase in the cost of debt or loss of access to corporate debt markets; reduction in government support of homeownership; the level and volatility of interest rates; changes in interest rate paths; increases in the delinquency rates of borrowers; changes in generally accepted accounting principles or in the legal, regulatory and legislative environments in the markets in which the Company operates; the ability of management to effectively implement the Company's strategies; and other risks noted in documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Words like "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "promise," "plan," and other expressions or words of similar meanings, as well as future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or "may" are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Countrywide Financial Corporation