Countrywide takes big charge

The nation's biggest mortgage lender is looking at pretax restructuring charge of $125 million to $150 million to cut operations and staff. A regulatory filing lays out a few specifics - about $57 million of the charge will occur in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, with the balance in the fourth quarter. About $30 million to $35 million is for termination benefits at Calabasas-based Countrywide (the company said it may cut 12,000 jobs). None of this, of course, covers the really big stuff - namely, writedowns for all those bad loans. Goldman, Sachs & Co. analyst James Fotheringham is looking at $1 billion over the next two quarters ($500 million in mortgages and $350 million in bonds backed by mortgages). Countrywide's earnings come out in a couple of weeks. (Bloomberg)