Securities regulators have stepped up their investigation of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. and its former chief executive, Angelo R. Mozilo.

Bank of America Corp., which acquired Calabasas-based Countrywide last month, said in a regulatory filing Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting a formal inquiry of the lender and that it had responded to subpoenas from the federal agency.

Federal law bars a corporate executive from buying or selling the stock of his or her company while in possession of material nonpublic information about the firm, unless the trades are made under automatic plans established in advance.

Mozilo launched such a plan in October 2006. But in the following two months, as problems in the subprime mortgage market mounted, he revised the plan once and launched an additional trading plan. Both moves allowed him to sell more shares.

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