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Countrywide Financial bosses to receive US$19m

Countrywide Financial Corp's chief executive and president will receive a combined US$19 million in stock next week as part of the company's pending takeover by Bank of America Corp, according to a regulatory filing.

The payments of stock valued at US$10 million for chief executive Angelo Mozilo and US$9 million for president David Sambol were disclosed in a regulatory filing late on Thursday by Bank of America.

The payments, described as "performance-based" stock rights and grants, are required by agreements the executives struck with Countrywide less than a year before the sub-prime meltdown forced the mortgage lender to sell itself, according to the filing.

Some lawmakers were incensed by the payouts.

"It's perverse for Bank of America to reward the principal architects of the bad business practices that caused this housing crisis," Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Mozilo, who is expected to retire after the takeover, previously agreed to give up US$36.4 million in cash severance benefits. But after his departure he will receive company-paid life and health benefits worth US$21,084 and medical benefits worth an estimated US$85,000.

Bank of America also disclosed in the filing that it would pay Sambol US$28 million to stay with the company. The bank wants Sambol to lead its consumer mortgage business when the deal is complete.

Bank of America is in the process of acquiring California-based Countrywide for about US$4 billion in stock. Bank of America agreed to the acquisition in January, and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.
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