Ex-Countrywide exec leads mortgage firm

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Stanford Kurland spent nearly three decades helping build Countrywide Financial Corp. into the nation’s largest mortgage lender. Now, the former president of the troubled company and several key colleagues hope to cash in as the housing market collapses.

Kurland, 55, will serve as chairman and chief executive officer of a new company unveiled yesterday that will acquire and restructure distressed mortgages. Private National Mortgage Acceptance Co. LLC, also known as PennyMac, intends to help borrowers restructure loans so they can avoid foreclosure and maintain payments.

PennyMac has even set up shop in Calabasas, Calif., about six miles from the offices of Countrywide.

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