Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender, was on Thursday forced to use an $11.5bn credit line from 40 of the world’s largest banks, heightening fears of a global liquidity crisis.

Shares in the company fell 16 per cent in early US trading after the company said it drew down the $11.5bn credit facility to boost liquidity after the global credit squeeze curbed its access to short-term financing from debt markets.

Late payments and defaults on US mortgages have reached their highest level in more than five years, prompting sharp falls in the value of mortgage-related securities. In a sign of how rapidly the crisis has escalated, Countrywide said as recently as August 2 that it had strong and diverse funding sources.

Rebecca Engmann Darst, an analyst at Interactive Brokers, said: “While Fed officials are proceeding as if a calamity has yet to occur in the US subprime mortgage market, it would appear that some in the market believe the calamity is simply yet to be fully appreciated.”

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