Countrywide (CFC): Make Mozilo Take His Comp

Angelo Mozilo, America’s favorite CEO, the head of train-wrecked mortgage-bank Countrywide Financial (CFC) has elected to pass on his pay package. According to The Wall Street Journal, Moz "is giving up $37.5 million of severance pay, fees and benefits."

The man will be testifying before Congress in a week and he is bound to be tarred and feathered by Congressmen preening for the national news cameras. Public officials do not like the fact that he made hundreds of millions in comp and cashed in stock while his company was imploding. A number of Countrywide mortgage customers have lost their homes and there are accusations that the company gave credit at high interest rates to those who could not afford it.

The board at Countrywide ought to make Mozilo take his money, even if it just means handing him the check in public. What he does with it then is immaterial. The board granted Mozilo the package. They already look like buffoons. They might as well pass the buck to the head guy.

Giving Mozilo his check would serve a purpose. It would show the public that his gesture has little meaning, especially to someone who has for years reaped all the benefits of an out-sized pay package. He cannot make himself look clean by one dramatic gesture.

Douglas A. McIntyre