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Wiki Wiki Summary
Financial statement Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity.\nRelevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to understand.
Arithmetic Arithmetic (from Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós) 'number', and τική [τέχνη] (tikḗ [tékhnē]) 'art, craft') is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th century, Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano formalized arithmetic with his Peano axioms, which are highly important to the field of mathematical logic today.
Special Activities Center The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert operations and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015.
Emergency operations center An emergency operations center (EOC) is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level during an emergency, and ensuring the continuity of operation of a company, political subdivision or other organization.\nAn EOC is responsible for strategic direction and operational decisions and does not normally directly control field assets, instead leaving tactical decisions to lower commands.
Surgery Surgery is a medical or dental specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pathological condition such as a disease or injury, to help improve bodily function, appearance, or to repair unwanted ruptured areas.\nThe act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply "surgery".
Bitwise operation In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic operations and directly supported by the processor.
Dirichlet conditions In mathematics, the Dirichlet conditions are sufficient conditions for a real-valued, periodic function f to be equal to the sum of its Fourier series at each point where f is continuous. Moreover, the behavior of the Fourier series at points of discontinuity is determined as well (it is the midpoint of the values of the discontinuity).
Twenty-one Conditions The Twenty-one Conditions, officially the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, refer to the conditions, most of which were suggested by Vladimir Lenin, to the adhesion of the socialist parties to the Third International (Comintern) created in 1919. The conditions were formally adopted by the Second Congress of the Comintern in 1920.
Nervous Conditions Nervous Conditions is a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, first published in the United Kingdom in 1988. It was the first book published by a black woman from Zimbabwe in English.
Wolfe conditions In the unconstrained minimization problem, the Wolfe conditions are a set of inequalities for performing inexact line search, especially in quasi-Newton methods, first published by Philip Wolfe in 1969.In these methods the idea is to find\n\n \n \n \n \n min\n \n x\n \n \n f\n (\n \n x\n \n )\n \n \n {\displaystyle \min _{x}f(\mathbf {x} )}\n for some smooth \n \n \n \n f\n :\n \n \n R\n \n \n n\n \n \n →\n \n R\n \n \n \n {\displaystyle f\colon \mathbb {R} ^{n}\to \mathbb {R} }\n . Each step often involves approximately solving the subproblem\n\n \n \n \n \n min\n \n α\n \n \n f\n (\n \n \n x\n \n \n k\n \n \n +\n α\n \n \n p\n \n \n k\n \n \n )\n \n \n {\displaystyle \min _{\alpha }f(\mathbf {x} _{k}+\alpha \mathbf {p} _{k})}\n where \n \n \n \n \n \n x\n \n \n k\n \n \n \n \n {\displaystyle \mathbf {x} _{k}}\n is the current best guess, \n \n \n \n \n \n p\n \n \n k\n \n \n ∈\n \n \n R\n \n \n n\n \n \n \n \n {\displaystyle \mathbf {p} _{k}\in \mathbb {R} ^{n}}\n is a search direction, and \n \n \n \n α\n ∈\n \n R\n \n \n \n {\displaystyle \alpha \in \mathbb {R} }\n is the step length.
Conditions (album) Conditions is the debut studio album by Australian rock band The Temper Trap, released in Australia through Liberation Music on 19 June 2009. It was later released in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2009.
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and nine minor outlying islands.
List of states and territories of the United States The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in North America between Canada and Mexico.
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
History of the United States The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely populated lifestyles and towards reorganized polities elsewhere. The European colonization of the Americas began in the late 15th century, however most colonies in what would later become the United States were settled after 1600.
Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party.\nThe GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories.
United States dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it into 100 cents, and authorized the minting of coins denominated in dollars and cents.
Bank of America Home Loans Bank of America Home Loans is the mortgage unit of Bank of America. In 2008, Bank of America purchased the failing Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion.
Subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the collapse of a housing bubble, leading to mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures, and the devaluation of housing-related securities.
Financial law Financial law is the law and regulation of the insurance, derivatives, commercial banking, capital markets and investment management sectors. Understanding Financial law is crucial to appreciating the creation and formation of banking and financial regulation, as well as the legal framework for finance generally.
Trustmark (bank) Trustmark is a commercial bank and financial services company headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, with subsidiaries Trustmark National Bank, Trustmark Investment Advisors, and Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance. The bank's initial predecessor, The Jackson Bank, was chartered by the State of Mississippi in 1889.
Form 10-K A Form 10-K is an annual report required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that gives a comprehensive summary of a company's financial performance. Although similarly named, the annual report on Form 10-K is distinct from the often glossy "annual report to shareholders," which a company must send to its shareholders when it holds an annual meeting to elect directors (though some companies combine the annual report and the 10-K into one document).
Risk management Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks (defined in ISO 31000 as the effect of uncertainty on objectives) followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.\nRisks can come from various sources including uncertainty in international markets, threats from project failures (at any phase in design, development, production, or sustaining of life-cycles), legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters, deliberate attack from an adversary, or events of uncertain or unpredictable root-cause.
Regulatory agency A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulating capacity.\nThese are customarily set up to strengthen safety and standards, and/or to protect consumers in markets where there is a lack of effective competition.
Regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context.
Regulatory state The term regulatory state refers to the expansion in the use of rulemaking, monitoring and enforcement techniques and institutions by the state and to a parallel change in the way its positive or negative functions in society are being carried out. The expansion of the state nowadays is generally via regulation and less via taxing and spending.
Regulatory sequence A regulatory sequence is a segment of a nucleic acid molecule which is capable of increasing or decreasing the expression of specific genes within an organism. Regulation of gene expression is an essential feature of all living organisms and viruses.
Regulatory affairs Regulatory affairs (RA), also called government affairs, is a profession within regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetics, agrochemicals (plant protection products and fertilizers), energy, banking, telecom etc. Regulatory affairs also has a very specific meaning within the healthcare industries (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biologics and functional foods).
Regulatory sign A regulatory sign is used to indicate or reinforce traffic laws, regulations or requirements which apply either at all times or at specified times or places upon a street or highway, the disregard of which may constitute a violation, or a sign in general that regulates public behavior in places open to the public. The FHWA defines regulatory sign as "a sign that gives notice to road users of traffic laws or regulations".
Regulatory focus theory Regulatory focus theory (RFT) is a theory of goal pursuit: 444  formulated by Columbia University psychology professor and researcher E. Tory Higgins regarding people's perceptions in the decision making process. RFT examines the relationship between the motivation of a person and the way in which they go about achieving their goal.
Regulation A In the United States under the Securities Act of 1933, any offer to sell securities must either be registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or meet certain qualifications to exempt it from such registration. Regulation A (or Reg A) contains rules providing exemptions from the registration requirements, allowing some companies to use equity crowdfunding to offer and sell their securities without having to register the securities with the SEC. Regulation A offerings are intended to make access to capital possible for small and medium-sized companies that could not otherwise bear the costs of a normal SEC registration and to allow nonaccredited investors to participate in the offering.
Formula One regulations The numerous Formula One regulations, made and enforced by the FIA and later the FISA, have changed dramatically since the first Formula One World Championship in 1950. This article covers the current state of F1 technical and sporting regulations, as well as the history of the technical regulations since 1950.
Radio regulation Radio regulation refers to the regulation and licensing of radio in international law, by individual governments, and by municipalities.\n\n\n== International regulation ==\nThe International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations The New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) contains New York state rules and regulations. The NYCRR is officially compiled by the New York State Department of State's Division of Administrative Rules.
Risk Factors
COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL CORP Item 1A Risk Factors Forward-Looking Statements Factors That May Affect Our Future Results We make forward-looking statements in this Report and in other reports we file with the SEC In addition, we make forward-looking statements in press releases and our management may make forward-looking statements orally to analysts, investors, the media and others
Generally, forward-looking statements include: · Projections of our revenues, income, earnings per share, capital structure or other financial items · Descriptions of our plans or objectives for future operations, products or services · Forecasts of our future economic performance, interest rates, profit margins and our share of future markets · Descriptions of assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing Forward-looking statements give management’s expectation about the future and are not guarantees
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
There are a number of factors, many of which 32 ______________________________________________________________________ are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ significantly from management’s expectations
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made
We do not undertake to update them to reflect changes that occur after the date they are made
General business, economic, market and political conditions may significantly affect our earnings Our business and earnings are sensitive to general business and economic conditions in the United States
These conditions include short-term and long-term interest rates, inflation, fluctuations in both debt and equity capital markets, and the strength of the US economy, as well as the local economies in which we conduct business
If any of these conditions worsen, our business and earnings could be adversely affected
For example, a rising interest rate environment could decrease the demand for loans; or, business and economic conditions that negatively impact household incomes could decrease the demand for our home loans and increase the number of customers who become delinquent or default on their loans
The risk of borrower default becomes more important to our business as our portfolio of loans held for investment continues to grow
In addition, our business and earnings are significantly affected by the fiscal and monetary policies of the federal government and its agencies
We are particularly affected by the policies of the Federal Reserve Board, which regulates the supply of money and credit in the United States
The Federal Reserve Board’s policies influence the size of the mortgage origination market, which significantly impacts the earnings of our Loan Production Sector and the value of our investment in MSRs and other retained interests
The Federal Reserve Board’s policies also influence the yield on our interest-earning assets and the cost of our interest-bearing liabilities
Changes in those policies are beyond our control and difficult to predict and can have a material effect on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition
Political conditions can also impact our earnings
Acts or threats of war or terrorism, as well as actions taken by the US or other governments in response to such acts or threats, could impact business and economic conditions in the United States
The volatility of our mortgage banking business may significantly affect our earnings The level and volatility of interest rates significantly affect the mortgage banking industry
For example, a decline in mortgage rates generally increases the demand for home loans as borrowers refinance, but also generally leads to accelerated payoffs in our mortgage servicing portfolio, which negatively impacts the value of our MSRs
We attempt to manage interest rate risk in our mortgage banking business primarily through the natural counterbalance of our loan production and servicing operations
In addition, we also use derivatives extensively in order to manage the interest rate, or price risk, inherent in our assets, liabilities and loan commitments
Our main objective in managing interest rate risk is to moderate the impact of changes in interest rates on our earnings over time
Our interest rate risk management strategies may result in significant earnings volatility in the short term
The success of our interest rate risk management strategy is largely dependent on our ability to predict the earnings sensitivity of our loan servicing and loan production operations in various interest rate environments
There are many market factors that impact the performance of our interest rate risk management activities including interest rate volatility, the shape of the yield curve and the spread between mortgage interest rates and Treasury or swap rates
The success of this strategy impacts our net income
This impact, which can be either positive or negative, can be material
33 ______________________________________________________________________ Our accounting policies and methods are fundamental to how we report our financial condition and results of operations, and they may require management to make estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain We have identified several accounting policies as being “critical” to the presentation of our financial condition and results of operations because they require management to make particularly subjective or complex judgments about matters that are inherently uncertain and because of the likelihood that materially different amounts would be recorded under different conditions or using different assumptions
These critical accounting policies relate to our gain from sale of loans and securities, valuation of retained interests and interest rate management activities
Because of the inherent uncertainty of the estimates associated with these critical accounting policies, we cannot provide any assurance that we will not make significant subsequent adjustments to the related amounts recorded
For more information, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies” section in this Report
The financial services industry is highly competitive We operate in a highly competitive industry that could become even more competitive as a result of economic, legislative, regulatory and technological changes
Competition for mortgage loans comes primarily from large commercial banks and savings institutions
Many of our competitors have fewer regulatory constraints
For example, national banks and federal savings and loan institutions are not subject to certain state laws and regulations targeted at predatory lending practices and we could be at a competitive disadvantage with respect to fulfilling legitimate nonprime credit opportunities
Another competitive consideration is that other companies have lower cost structures and others are less reliant on the secondary mortgage market for funding due to their greater portfolio lending capacity
We face competition in such areas as mortgage product offerings, rates and fees, and customer service, both at the retail and institutional level
In addition, technological advances and heightened e-commerce activities have increased consumers’ accessibility to products and services generally
This has intensified competition among banking as well as nonbanking companies in offering financial products and services, with or without the need for a physical presence
Negative public opinion could damage our reputation and adversely impact our earnings Reputation risk, or the risk to our business, earnings and capital from negative public opinion, is inherent in our business
Negative public opinion can result from our actual or alleged conduct in any number of activities, including lending practices, corporate governance and acquisitions, and from actions taken by government regulators and community organizations in response to those activities
Negative public opinion can adversely affect our ability to keep and attract customers and employees and can expose us to litigation and regulatory action
Because virtually all of our businesses operate under the “Countrywide” brand, actual or alleged conduct by one business can result in negative public opinion about other Countrywide businesses
Although we take steps to minimize reputation risk in dealing with our customers and communities, as a large diversified financial services company with a relatively high industry profile, this risk will always be present in our organization
Changes in regulations could adversely affect our business We are heavily regulated by banking, mortgage lending and insurance laws at the federal, state and local levels, and proposals for further regulation of the financial services industry are continually being introduced
We are subject to many other federal, state and local laws and regulations that affect our business, including those regarding taxation and privacy
Congress and state legislatures, as well as federal and state regulatory agencies, review such laws, regulations and policies and periodically propose changes that could affect us in substantial and unpredictable ways
Such changes could, for example, limit the types of financial services and products we offer, or limit our liability or increase our cost to offer such services 34 ______________________________________________________________________ and products
It is possible that one or more legislative proposals may be adopted or regulatory changes may be implemented that would have an adverse effect on our business
Our failure to comply with such laws or regulations, whether actual or alleged, could expose us to fines, penalties or potential litigation liabilities, including costs, settlements and judgments, any of which could adversely affect our earnings
We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about customers and counterparties In deciding whether to extend credit or enter into other transactions with customers and counterparties, we may rely on information furnished to us by or on behalf of customers and counterparties, including financial statements and other financial information
We also may rely on representations of customers and counterparties as to the accuracy and completeness of that information and, with respect to financial statements, on reports of independent auditors
For example, in deciding whether to extend credit to institutional customers, we may assume that a customer’s audited financial statements conform with GAAP and present fairly, in all material respects, the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the customer
Our financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted to the extent we rely on financial statements that do not comply with GAAP or are materially misleading
We are exposed to operational risks Countrywide, like all large corporations, is exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of fraud by employees or outsiders, unauthorized transactions by employees or operational errors, including clerical or record-keeping errors or those resulting from faulty or disabled computer or telecommunications systems
Given the high volume of transactions at Countrywide, certain errors may be repeated or compounded before they are discovered and successfully corrected
Our dependence upon automated systems to record and process transaction volume may further increase the risk that technical system flaws or employee tampering or manipulation of those systems will result in losses that are difficult to detect
We may be subject to disruptions of our systems, arising from events that are wholly or partially beyond our control (including, for example, computer viruses or electrical or telecommunications outages), which may give rise to losses in service to customers and to loss or liability
We are exposed to the risk that our external vendors may be unable to fulfill their contractual obligation to us (or will be subject to the same risk of fraud or operational errors by their respective employees as we are), and to the risk that our (or our vendors’) business continuity and data security systems prove not to be adequate to allow us to resume operations in the event of a disruption to our (or our vendors’) operations
We also face the risk that the design of our controls and procedures prove inadequate or are circumvented, thereby causing delays in detection or errors in information
Although we maintain a system of controls designed to keep operational risk at appropriate levels, there can be no assurance that we will not suffer losses from operational risks in the future that may be material in amount
Other Factors The above description of risk factors is not exhaustive
Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated include, but are not limited to: · A general decline in US housing prices or in activity in the US housing market · A loss of investment-grade credit ratings, which may result in increased cost of debt or loss of access to corporate debt markets · A reduction in the availability of secondary markets for our mortgage loan products · A reduction in government support of homeownership · A change in our relationship with the housing-related government agencies and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) 35 ______________________________________________________________________ · Changes in regulations or the occurrence of other events that impact the business, operation or prospects of GSEs · Ineffectiveness of our hedging activities · The level and volatility of interest rates · Changes in interest rate paths · 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 · The level of competition in each of our business segments · The occurrence of natural disasters or other events or circumstances that could impact our operations or could impact the level of claims in the Insurance Segment Other risk factors are described elsewhere herein as well as in other reports and documents that we file with or furnish to the SEC Other factors that could also cause results to differ from our expectations may not be described in any such report or document
Each of these factors could by itself, or together with one or more other factors, adversely affect our business, results of operations and/or financial condition