lower credit rating will hamper Countrywide Financial Corp

--Countrywide Financial Corp. warned in a securities filing that further cuts in its credit ratings to junk-bond levels could "severely" limit its ability to raise money in public debt markets and cause it to lose bank deposits. --In a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday, the Calabasas, Calif., home-mortgage lender said that a cut in its ratings to levels below investment-grade could prevent it from placing funds from custodial accounts at its savings bank subsidiary, Countrywide Bank. Ratings below investment grade also might cause Countrywide Bank to lose commercial deposits and limit the trading activities of the company's broker-dealer unit, Countrywide said.