U.S. Bancorp Ups New Century Stake

New Century Financial Corp. in Irvine said U.S. Bancorp has agreed to lend an additional $10 million to the company in exchange for new stock warrants that would bring the Minneapolis bank’s stake in the mortgage lender to nearly 28%.

With the new loan, U.S. Bancorp’s investment in New Century totals about $85 million over the past 18 months. New Century officials said they plan to use the money to develop new mortgage products and to adopt an automated underwriting system for loan approvals.