-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Angelo R. Mozilo:Country Wide Financial: Success with Tricolor
Roots
Date: 	Sun, 4 Apr 2004 04:39:23 EDT
From: 	Trimtantre@aol.com
To: 	Annotico@aol.com, RAA-Italian@yahoogroups.com,
Italiani2@yahoogroups.com, information@ilpostinocanada.com,
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The ANNOTICO Report

Angelo R. Mozilo of Sicilian-Campanian origin is one of the most
important Italian American executives in US real estate banking. His
company CountryWide, has over 520 locations in the U.S., and a work
force of 30,000. Last year they had a turnover of 430 billion dollars in
mortgages.
==========================================================
ANGELO R.MOZILO: AMERICAN SUCESS WITH TRICOLOR ROOTS

"My Italian family was relatively poor, and I'm proud of their support
and sustenance, proud that I succeeded in building a leading American
company".

News Italia Press
Venerdì 06 Febbraio 2004

Calabasas – Angelo R. Mozilo: a success story with Italian roots. The
synthesis of a profession and a Sicilian-Campanian origin. These are the
images to describe the personality of one of the most important Italian
American executives in real estate banking.

Born in 1938 in the Bronx, New York, since 1969 Mozilo has been in the
top management of Countrywide Financial Corporation and Countrywide Home
Loans Inc. – as CEO, and as President of the Board of Directors of the
financial services company based in Calabasas, California. Countrywide
Financial is in the S&P 500, Forbes 500, and Barron 500.

It has over 520 locations in the U.S., and a work force of 30,000.
Mozilo has been President of the Mortgage Bankers Association of
America, and is still on the MBA board today, but with his deep
dedication to the Italian American community, he is also a member of the
Board of NIAF (the National Italian American Foundation). He works on
funding for the education of young people in financial need, and has
positions on the boards of several universities, both in the U.S. and
abroad. He also works at the Horatio Alger Association, with young
students preparing for college. But as he tells us, his successes in
various fields in the U.S. and abroad have never distracted him from his
passion for Italy.

Mr. Mozilo, since 1969 you have had a guiding role at Countrywide
Financial Corporation and Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., two large
companies that finance the real estate sales sector. What is the exact
nature of your work, in the company that you founded?
Countrywide Financial is in the loans and mortgages market – Italy has
the same type of companies. There are the banks too, but they operate
differently here. We arrange mortgages for families that are buying
homes.  We also work in the life insurance field, and home insurance.
Countrywide owns Countrywide Capital Market, which handled 2.8 billion
dollars in investments in 2003. It also owns a bank – Countrywide Bank,
which has about 50 locations in the U.S. and assets of about 22 billion
dollars.

These are serious figures – how did you get started in the business?
I started in 1968, at age 29. I had worked for another company from age
14 to age 29 – that's about 15 years. But that company was bought by a
competitor, and I wasn't happy there after that, so I decided I wasn't
going to work for other people anymore. Together with my partners, I set
up Countrywide in California. We were the first national company in the
field. To this day there's still no other company like ours – because
the mortgage market is always very local. In the sixties it was a great
idea. We ran into some problems over the first 10 to 12 years, but we
survived.

How did you manage to build a national network?
Very slowly. We brought the company to its current level one step at a
time, little by little – we grew in a very organic way. Our strength was
always offering what others couldn't, and doing so with a passion. Today
we're one of the main companies in the field. We're up there with the
giants that have developed real estate branches, like JP Morgan, West
Fargo, and Washington Mutual.

Do you work with Italian or Italian American businesses? What
particularly Italian styles of working have you seen over the years?
Certainly, I work with many Italian Americans. A good portion of the
people working in the banks, on Wall Street and in the financial
services in general, are of Italian origin.

In your view is the "Italian way" of doing business different from the
American way?
Yes, very much so. The market is very different here: financing costs
much more in Italy, and the clientele is older. Here kids 19, 20, 21
years old own homes.

The requirements to get a loan in the U.S. are much simpler, don't you
think?
Much simpler; in my experience it's much more complicated in Italy. Here
you can get a loan over the internet, for instance, and that's
impossible in Italy, or anywhere in Europe. In Europe they're not making
changes in their procedures like they have here, and I think it's
because here there's more competition.

In 1991-1992 you were the president of the MBA (Mortgage Bankers
Association of America). And you are still there, as a member of the
Board of Directors. This is what I'd like to know: over the past year
has the American banking system been suffering effects of the recent
series of large-scale scandals (like the Enron case)? After these events
is the American investor's confidence recovering, or not? And what
changes has the American banking system made following these scandals?
First of all, the Enron case wasn't about a single bank, but a system of
banks that all got involved in the investigations (among others, JP
Morgan). But I want to point out that cases like Enron, and now the
Parmalat case in Italy, are the consequences of the bad practices of a
limited number of people. It's wrong to see the crimes of just a few
people as representing the entire category, and to destroy its
reputation. And the reaction in the U.S. was important. A law was passed
specifically to regulate companies (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act); now the
managers have stronger regulatory powers, and there's a higher level of
exchange of information between business and government.

Now a similar scandal is happening in Italy: Parmalat, as you mentioned.
It is eroding the investors' confidence, and it has loudly proclaimed to
Italian and international public opinion the weaknesses in the system
regulating finance and correct governance in the large multinationals.
Does the U.S. have something to teach Italy about this?
It's not so much about teaching as about learning. It's more that Italy
has to learn from the U.S. We speak different languages, but I believe
Italy can learn something from the American financial world. I believe
the weakness in the system is not at all only Italian, though; problems
of lack of regulation are occurring all over Europe. What's wrong?
Management practices: there are a lot of people in these massive, listed
companies who act as if they're running a personal business. These are
public companies, with shareholders. These people are employing public
assets for their own personal benefit, and there's no authority
regulating them. In my view there's only one lesson to learn from the
United States: more regulation.

It's well known that the PMIs, the small and medium businesses, have a
hard time getting funding from the Italian banks – but they are the
major force in Italian and European enterprise. Are the American banks
taking advantage of this opportunity in the European market?
No. The European market is very protectionist, it's practically
impossible to break in.

How does the American banking system need to change or grow, culturally
or in its work methods, to address the European market?
I think the European market has enormous potential. The loans market
alone could be 400-500 billion dollars. The problem is that the
regulations aren't standardized, so it's very expensive to work in this
market.

Would you consider opening a business in Italy?
No, I've tried in the past and it's very difficult. It's a closed
market. Countrywide has a branch in England and it does very well; we
have a turnover of about 100 billion dollars, and we're very active
there in loans. We supply Barclays Bank, our partner. The only way to
enter the European market is through the banks that are already there.
It's the same with our activities in France.

Let's change the subject. One of the many awards you've received is a
Special Achievement Award for Humanitarian Service, from NIAF. You're on
the Board of Directors of NIAF, too, and also on the boards of many U.S.
universities. You work with the Horatio Alger Association, helping out
young students in need, so they can go to college. What do you think of
the organizations like NIAF and OSIA that are promoting Italian culture
in the U.S.?
I think they're doing a fantastic job. For me and my generation – born
of emigrants, our grandparents were born in Italy and arrived in America
at the end of the 1800s – it's comforting that these institutions exist
to keep our roots and our origins alive. There are a great many Italians
in New York, not so many in California, and there it's harder to feel
like part of the community. NIAF and OSIA help one feel attached to
one's roots, in the places where there are fewer Italians. I'm a member
of the NIAF administration, and I have a great deal of respect for the
work these institutions are doing, especially for education, and in
support of higher learning in general. I'm very happy with the
relationships that I've built inside the National Italian American
Foundation.

There are some Italian American organizations that arrange internships
for young Italian Americans in businesses in Italy. What do you think of
that project? What can they look forward to, these kids who are
interning in Italian businesses that are part of the PMI system,
different from the American system?
I think it's a great thing, most of all because they can learn the
Italian language. I like the fact that Hispanic people here study
foreign languages, including Italian. The new generations integrate
themselves by learning English. Language is a particularly important
factor for integration. My generation doesn't speak Italian because
their parents didn't speak Italian. They thought it would make it harder
for the kids to speak English in school.

But at home they spoke in dialect...
Yes, my parents spoke in dialect and I learned it: my mother spoke
Sicilian and my father Neapolitan. I understand the dialect because it
was always around me, but I don't speak it. My children speak Italian.
They learned in Italy, in Florence and Rome; they spent years in Italy
and France learning the languages and going to school.

Did you study in the U.S. yourself?
Yes. My education was a major concern in my family; all we talked about
at home was what I could achieve if I studied. The American schools did
the rest. In the U.S. you can make your dreams come true, you can reach
the objectives you fix for yourself. It doesn't matter what your name is
or where you come from.

In conclusion – how would you sum up your experience of being Italian
American?
My family was relatively poor and I'm proud, thanks to their support,
their sustenance, proud to have been able to build a leading company in
America. My grandparents escaped hunger and poverty and looked for
better opportunities for themselves and their children, and they
succeeded. My father had a butcher shop, he was able to carry on the
work of his own father and to progress further, and I was able to go
even further.

Have you been able to visit the places where your relatives lived in Italy?
I've visited the city where my paternal grandparents lived. Castel
Nuovo, it's 15-20 minutes outside of Naples, a little town that hasn't
changed much through the years. I went into my grandfather's house and
it was very powerful experience. My father has been dead for some time,
and I saw that my cousins look a lot like him. And I was struck by the
fact that they were still doing things the same way they had for over
fifty years, for example still bottling wine in the cellar. It's a
simple life, simple people, simple things, bound to the earth.

Mr. Mozilo, what are the things you like about Italy?
The people. Despite hard times the Italians know how to make it, they
eat well no matter what, they enjoy themselves. The Italian cuisine is
the best in the world. I love Italy, I love Rome almost as much as
Paris: I love Paris because the Italians taught the French to cook good
food! And I love southern Italy, for example Taormina, which is a part
of my origin.

And what don't you like?
Just little things: the traffic in the cities. There's nothing I don't
like. I only knew poor Italians with very little education, that was my
idea of Italians. When I got to Italy I learned that the Italians are
sophisticated, cultured, extremely talented...

News ITALIA PRESS
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