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Angelo Mozilo, Whose Mortgage Giant Fell in Housing Bust, Dies at 84
He built Countrywide Financial into the country’s largest mortgage lender, but its increasingly risky loans helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.
Angelo Mozilo, a founder of Countrywide Financial who presided over that lending giant’s rapid ascent and then its collapse during the financial crisis of 2008, died on Sunday. He was 84.
His death, in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area, was announced in a statement by the Mozilo Family Foundation, the family’s philanthropic organization. It did not specify a cause.
Countrywide was a major player in the run-up to the housing crisis, when looser financial regulations enabled lenders to aggressively sell risky mortgage products to prospective homeowners, contributing to a bubble in housing prices. That burst, in 2008, when home values came crashing down, led the U.S. economy into a prolonged recession.
Mr. Mozilo, who was the son of a Bronx butcher and worked his way through Fordham University, became one of the most recognized executives associated with the crisis. Motivated by his modest beginnings, he had built Countrywide into one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders by the early 2000s. But he still wasn’t satisfied: He wanted the company to attain 30 to 40 percent market share, far more than any single lender had achieved.
sales culture propelled the company’s growth and profits but ultimately led to its downfall. As the housing market crashed and borrower defaults soared, Countrywide’s lending practices came under the scrutiny of legislators, regulators and consumer advocates.
Financial pressures began to mount, and the company, based in Calabasas, Calif., west of Los Angeles, was acquired by Bank of America in 2008 at the fire sale price of $4 billion. But the purchase ended up costing Bank of America billions more in legal and other costs it had inherited.
At the time, nearly 150 mortgage lenders had failed, many of which were taken over by healthier institutions.
Mr. Mozilo, recognizable by his crisp suits and deep tan, continued to defend his company throughout the ordeal. “Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country,” he told congressional examiners in September 2010, more than two years after Bank of America bought the company.
his member profile in the Horatio Alger Association.
By the time he was 14 he had his first job in the financial industry, working as a messenger boy for a Manhattan mortgage company.
He was married to Phyllis (Ardese) Mozilo for more than 50 years. She died in 2017. He is survived by their five children, Christy Mozilo Larsen and David, Elizabeth, Eric and Mark Mozilo; and 11 grandchildren.