Mozilo Cites 'Complex' Causes of B&C Woes

The industry has to be careful of blaming itself too much for the subprime niche's recent wave of performance concerns, says Countrywide Financial chairman and chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo, citing other "complex" contributing factors such as home price depreciation, Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, and fraud.Addressing the opening general session of the Mortgage Bankers Association's secondary market convention in New York, Mr. Mozilo indicated that the slowdown in home price appreciation in particular helped put the market in a position that can be described by the saying, "You never know you're swimming naked until the tide goes out." He noted that other contributing factors included a lot of competitive "pressure to make loans" in the market.