Countrywide debt protection costs leap

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The cost to insure the debt of Countrywide Financial Corp. CFC.N surged on Friday as investors fretted over the impact of delinquencies by residential mortgage borrowers.

Countrywide's credit default swap spreads widened by almost 100 basis points, reaching more than 300 basis points, or $300,000 per year for five years to insure $10 million in debt, from 215 basis points at Thursday's close.