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First, Countrywide Financial Corp. went down, as the nation’s biggest mortgage lender was acquired in a rescue operation July 1 by Bank of America Corp. Now Countrywide’s offspring, IndyMac Bancorp Inc., is on the ropes.
![[IndyMac]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-AR270_INDYMA_20080708225616.jpg) |
| Reuters |
| IndyMac CEO Michael Perry, left, and Angelo Mozilo, former head of Countrywide, which created IndyMac. |
The Pasadena-based mortgage lender and savings bank, founded two decades ago by Countrywide, on Tuesday began dismantling most of its business amid heavy losses from mortgage defaults that have made it impossible to raise needed capital.
IndyMac said Monday that it will reduce its work force by 53% to about 3,400 and stop making most types of mortgage loans. Its Financial Freedom unit will continue to provide reverse mortgages — a type of loan that allows people 62 or older to receive payments from the bank; the loans are repaid, with interest, when the borrower sells the house, moves out or dies.
