Countrywide Exits the Stage.

Washington -- Angelo Mozilo - co-founder, chairman and CEO of Countrywide Home Loans, once a powerhouse in mortgage banking and the world's largest mortgage servicer - is leaving the playing field.

Last month, ending an era, Mr. Mozilo stepped down in the wake of Bank of America's $2.5 billion purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp., a company that at one time was worth $25 billion on paper. Countrywide isn't the first big servicer to disappear from the stage - names like Lomas and GE Mortgage ring a bell - but it's fall from grace was dramatic.

He launched CFC as a non-bank 39 years ago at the kitchen table of a Manhattan apartment owned by his late friend and former boss, David Loeb. Mr. Mozilo started in the mortgage business when he was 14 years old, serving as a "runner" for a loan company in Midtown Manhattan.

For most of those 39 years this Bronx native was an admired and feared competitor and served, in some respects, as a spokesman for the industry, appearing frequently on CNBC to talk about the mortgage business and then, as CFC's fortunes crumbled, his own company.

Over the past year his reputation has been hammered in columns and blogs for selling $400 million worth of stock as CFC's share price crumbled from $40 to $4.

Even though the company is now the property of Bank of America, it is still the subject of multiple state probes for both its lending and foreclosure practices. CFC has been vilified by consumer activists for being a "predatory" subprime lender, a business it avoided for most of its history.

I first met Mr. Mozilo 20 years ago. It's hard to put an exact date on it, though I do remember the first time he came to my Washington office on G Street, three blocks from the White House.