It was announced earlier this week that Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the United States, plans to purchase Countrywide Financial, a giant in mortgage financing. In what economic analysts have called his biggest gamble yet, Bank of America CEO, Ken Lewis agreed to buy Countrywide, and relieve it from the possibility of bankruptcy, for approximately $4 billion in stocks.

Countrywide has made some 9 million loans to homeowners in the United States, including hundreds of people in Caribbean communities across the country. Loans made by the mortgage lender amounted to some $1.5 trillion dollars, but a percentage of its loan portfolio came under severe pressure due to problems encountered by mortgage lenders in collection on loans. Many of these loans were made below the prime lending rates, creating what has been called “the sub-prime rate mortgage crisis.”

Bank of America, with this new acquisition, takes on billions in problem mortgages, with foreclosures still on the rise and the odds of a national recession looming. It was not clear what plans Bank of America will develop to handle the mortgages it inherited. However, people holding mortgages with Countrywide must continue paying their mortgages as scheduled or face foreclosure.