NEW YORK -- Countrywide Financial Corp. , the largest U.S. mortgage lender, Thursday sought to ease growing market concerns about its liquidity.

"Countrywide has longstanding and time-tested funding liquidity contingency planning," Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki said in a statement. "Our liquidity planning proved highly effective earlier during 2007 when market concerns first arose about subprime lending, and remains so today."

He said Countrywide has almost $50 billion of "highly reliable short-term funding liquidity" available, and has had no disruption to daily operations, including the placement of short-term debt known as commercial paper.

Shares of the Calabasas, California-based company have fallen more than 21 percent since July 24, when it reported a larger-than-expected decline in quarterly profit, and said credit quality concerns are spreading beyond riskier "subprime" borrowers to those with better credit histories.

Countrywide shares closed Thursday down 43 cents at $26.77, after earlier hitting their lowest level since January 2004.

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