A senior Democratic senator has promised to give $10,500 to charity and refinance a property loan after reports that he was one of a number of Washington figures given special treatment under a VIP loan programme run by Countrywide Financial, the embattled mortgage lender.

Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate budget committee, said at the weekend: “Although I did not ask for or know that I was receiving a discount, and even though I was offered a competitive loan from another lender, I do not want to have received preferential treatment.”