Countrywide Financial Corp.
| Countrywide Financial Corp. | |
| Products | Mortgage Lender |
|---|---|
Countrywide Financial Corp. was a major U.S. mortgage lending company.
History[edit]
Founded in New York four decades ago by Angelo R. Mozilo, a butcher’s son from the Bronx, and David Loeb, a founder of a mortgage banking firm in New York who died in 2003, Countrywide Financial Corp. became a $500 billion home loan machine with 62,000 employees, 900 offices and assets of $200 billion. As the mortgage market boomed beginning in 2000, no company pursued growth in home loans more aggressively than Countrywide.[1]
After nearly collapsing into bankruptcy as its financing dried up, the company was acquired by Bank of America in 2008.
In October of 2008, after the acquisition took place, BofA said it was ready to spend up to $8.4 billion to restructure the troubled mortgage loan portfolio of Countrywide Financial Corp. The bank said in a statement that the program was designed to help borrowers who financed their homes with high-risk subprime loans serviced by Countrywide.[2]
In June 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil fraud and insider trading charges against Mozilo and his top lieutenants: David Sambol, the company’s former president, and Eric Sieracki, the former chief financial officer. In October of that year, Mozilo agreed to repay $45 million in ill-gotten profits and $22.5 million in civil penalties as part of a settlement with the SEC in which he admitted no wrongdoing.[3]
In June 2010, Countrywide Home Loans and its mortgage servicing unit, which are now part of Bank of America, agreed to pay $108 million to settle federal charges that the company overcharged customers.
The Justice Department on Dec. 21, 2011 announced a $335 million settlement with Bank of America Corp. over alleged discriminatory lending practices by its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit during the build up to the financial crisis of 2008. The settlement, the largest residential settlement of its kind in DOJ history, involved more than 200,000 qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers and loans made to them between 2004 and 2008.[4]
Products and Services[edit]
Key People[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 25 People To Blame For The Financial Crisis. Time.
- ↑ Bank Of America Says To Spend Up To $8.4 Bln On Countrywide. AFB.
- ↑ Countrywide Financial Corporation. The New York Times.
- ↑ U.S. in $335 mln settlement with B. of A.. MarketWatch.