An appeal to Countrywide insiders: care to weigh in?
In response to last night’s post about Countrywide and CEO Mozilo, I got this response from “anonymous.” On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog, so I’ll have to the commenter’s word that s/he is who s/he says s/he is. Here it is:
I am a senior VP at Countrywide. The good people at our company are struggling with this, among other things. Many of us wish the leadership would have chosen to use this crisis as a time for reflection, self-examination, and betterment rather than retrenchment and PR bullshit, but leadership at our company has ceased to listen. They merely dictate. Very few people in Drew Gissinger’s circle have the temerity to question his mandates, which are often formulated in haste, and often very emotional and reactionary in nature. I don’t sign loyalty pledges for anybody, and my inquiries into what the potential consequences to my career might be for failing to do so have gone unanswered.
It is truly a sad time. Though I’m sure the company will survive, and someday thrive again, I now have serious doubts as to the sincerity of our mission at the very top of our ranks. Those of us at my level believe it in our bones.
That certainly rings true to me — don’t you agree? I responded with this:
In any business, inept senior management can lead to all sorts of trouble, for themselves and for everyone down the ladder. But if they’re sincere and truly giving their level best, it at least takes some of the sting out of operational pitfalls.
But cynical leadership is the worst, because everyone down the ladder can smell the cynicism from a thousand yards away.
My worry is that Mozilo & his lieutanants might be the worst of all — inept AND cynical. And the really crummy part, if this is true, is that he’s got his vigorish regardless, while thousands of workers on down the line have been given the sack.
Here’s a broader appeal to current and recent Countrywide insiders: please use the comments here to let us know your own thoughts about what the company’s going through, and about the response of Countrywide’s senior management to the company’s plight.
Category: Executives, Finance & Real Estate, The working life4 Comments so far
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[...] He has, pretty clearly, done something that will win him no new friends among the worried ranks of Countrywide employees who fear that he and his lieutenants are engaged in nothi…. [...]
I am writing to you as a low level stiff toiling away in what was once the subprime division of Countrywide. We do mostly EA and Prime now, although for some reason we are .50% to 1.75% higher than Countrywide retail on the same conforming loans. I wanted to tell you about a little know loophole that exists in Expanded Approval underwriting guidelines. You don’t need a verification of deposit to prove assets. Why is this a big deal you may ask? In Expanded Approval underwriting, assets are a huge determining factor when it comes to getting an approval through DU. The more assets you can show the better your chances are of getting a better loan even with shaky credit. What does this mean? Get a customers bank statements and fax them to your efax. Open them up in something as simple as Microsoft Paint and you can magically get someone from 500.00 in assets to 5,000.00 without much effort. You now have yourself an EA approval for your customer, we neatly package the loan for Fannie and away the customer goes. Did I mention the customer had a 63% BACK END DEBT RATIO! Doesn’t matter to DU because they have 3 months of assets which the loan officer submitted with the file. Oh wait…..no they don’t. But it doesn’t matter because Countrywide doesn’t ask for a verification of deposit from the customers bank to make sure the assets are real, only the bank statements. It goes on daily over and over again.
[...] is not exactly the Red Cross when it comes to helping people out. A few weeks ago I put out an appeal to Countrywide employees to give their views on the company. One anonymous commenter (”low level insider”) wrote [...]
[...] An appeal to Countrywide insiders: care to weigh in? [...]