CNBC Press Releases

BARTIROMO: Walk me through how this has happened and how it's happened so quickly. Last week I was looking at a piece in The New York Times. You see pictures of people going at Countrywide...

Mr. MOZILO: Unbelievable.

BARTIROMO: ...taking money out of the bank. There was a run...

Mr. MOZILO: Unbelievable.

BARTIROMO: ...on the bank.

Mr. MOZILO: Yeah. That would drive--Maria...

BARTIROMO: Can you tell us what has gone on in the last year?

Mr. MOZILO: ...every day I'd wake up and say, `OK, we're through that problem.' And then wake up, you know, I go to work around 4 in the morning, and there was another problem, two problems, three problems. It was incredible because it began feeding itself. And what I found out in this process--because I've never been through anything like this before; I've been through a lot in 55 years, but nothing like this--is that people tend to--their lemmings. They just kept on--all sides, everybody began attacking because fear set in. And everybody's fearful. `I don't want to be the last one left behind in this burning house, so I'm going to get out of here.' And so--and that--and that creates pressure and creates problems. The actions of the people created problems, and I said I really felt for these people that are standing on line. It was terrible. We've got cookies out there and coffee and all kinds of stuff that--because we weren't prepared for that. But it was that bankruptcy note that was put in the analyst's report that said that--that was, you know, yelling fire in a very, very crowded theater. And it was very unfortunate and totally unnecessary. But it happened, and it was people like that, things like that, irresponsible statements, misconceptions, all of that that caused--that caused the issue. And so I had to right the ship right away, and this by far was the best way of doing it. I'm very grateful for Bank of America, frankly, for stepping in and having the confidence in us that they did.

BARTIROMO: And a lot of people expect that, at some point, Bank of America will acquire Countrywide.

Mr. MOZILO: Yeah.

BARTIROMO: Is that in the cards?

Mr. MOZILO: Well, you know, look, I've--I always say to that, this is not part of this deal. You know, this is an investment in Countrywide, a true investment, looking for various things that we can do together in the future. But my interests are aligned with the shareholders. You know, I'm the largest shareholder in Countrywide, individual shareholder. And so whatever is the best for the shareholders down the line, that's my responsibility is to make sure that I protect their interests. But that's not in this transaction.

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