Countrywide Financial Corp. said late Sunday that Chairman and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo has decided to give up his severance package when he leaves the company.
The Calabasas-based lender estimated that Mozilo was walking away from $37.5 million, which included “severance, post-closing consultant fees, and continued perquisites,” the company said in a statement. The amount is much smaller than the $115 million reported when Countrywide’s $4.1 billion buyout by Bank of America Corp. was announced.
Also included in the perk-laden package Mozilo gave up were country club dues that were to be paid by Countrywide as well as use the company’s private jet.
Mozilo will retain a pension plan as well as a supplemental retirement plan that is currently worth about $24 million as of December 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal’s estimates.
The statement said Mozilo will receive no cash payment upon his departure and “other than amounts that he has already earned in full, such as retirement benefits and deferred compensation,” he will get no additional payments from the company. The statement called the decision voluntary on Mozilo’s part.
Mozilo added in the release that he felt it “the right thing to do.”
Mozilo has been criticized for reaping tens of millions of dollars. He accelerated his personal stock sales before the company’s stock price nosedived.
Also, the lender is releasing fourth quarter as well as year-end earnings for 2007 on Tuesday at 8 a.m. by press release only, the company said.
Shares in Countrywide were down 4 cents to $4.98 in early trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.
