Let me start by making two important points.
First, Jackie and I acted properly in our mortgage refinancing negotiations. We did not seek or expect any special rates or terms on our loans and we never received any.
Second, the rates and terms we did negotiate were widely available in the market when we refinanced.
In the spring of 2003, when mortgage rates were dropping to a near 50 year low, and we did what millions of other Americans did - we refinanced the mortgages on our home in Connecticut, which I've owned for 27 years, and our home in Washington, which we bought together in 1999. There was an almost unprecedented level of mortgage refinancing in the spring of 2003 and lenders were aggressively competing to attract new customers or retain current borrowers.
We shopped around with several different lenders during that time, but decided to stay with Countrywide because they met the lower rates and terms that were readily available from other lenders. We had been a good customer, and it was easier to refinance with them than to originate new mortgages with a new lender.
We negotiated only with loan officers. There was nothing special about the rates, fees, or points. We were never offered special or sweetheart deals and if anyone had made such an offer- we would have severed that relationship immediately.
Today, we are making public over 100 pages of documents that include the details on our 2003 loans: the Connecticut refinance, the Washington, DC refinance and the home equity loan. These documents contain all the information about the rates, fees, points and terms of our loans. The documents also include the information about the float down of the rates that we negotiated for both the CT and Washington homes. These are all the documents that Jackie and I used and relied upon when we negotiated the refinancings of our mortgage loans including the home equity loan.
We are also releasing a number of documents that our lawyers received from Countrywide last summer. We had never seen these documents before.
These two sets of documents are all of the documents concerning these loans that we have in our possession. They have all been provided to the Ethics Committee.
Lastly, I'm providing an independent report from a firm that reviewed our loan documents, examined and analyzed loan rates across the mortgage industry and the real estate market at that time. The report clearly concludes that the rates and terms of our loans were available to similarly qualified borrowers at the time.
These documents put to rest any notion that Jackie and I received a special deal or sweetheart deal on our loans.
Allow me to address two other issues: the so called "friends of Angelo" list and the VIP program at Countrywide.
Let me be very clear, we are not friends of Angelo Mozilo and we have never been a friend of his. We have never communicated with him or anyone else other than loan officers at Countrywide about our mortgages. The first we ever heard of the "friends of Angelo" list was through press reports last summer. Apparently, Countrywide put us on this list, but it was without our knowledge or consent and as you'll see we negotiated market rates and terms.
We were aware of the VIP program. We asked what it entailed and we were told that it was nothing more than enhanced customer service. For instance, being able to get a person on the phone instead of an automated operator.
We believed this was nothing more than a courtesy for highly qualified borrowers. We have since been told the VIP program includes thousands of customers.
Since we shopped around for competing rates at the time of our refinancing and since Countrywide was offering competitive rates and terms, we had no reason to believe that we were getting anything that wasn't widely available to similarly qualified borrowers.
Let me conclude by saying - knowing what I know now, I regret having ever done business with Countrywide. As I said earlier, I also regret not making these documents public sooner. I respect the Ethics Committee process, but I also have an obligation to the people of Connecticut, who have a right to expect the highest standards from their elected representatives. And again, I am sorry that I did not do this sooner.
Lastly, Jackie and I have also decided that we will refinance our homes and, in an abundance of caution, we will be seeking a third party to negotiate the new loan terms on our behalf.
I am proud of my service as a United States Senator for these past 28 years. I understand there will always be people who disagree with my positions on certain issues, but I do not want anyone to ever believe that I would trade my office for personal financial gain. To believe that is to misunderstand everything that is important to me and everything that has motivated my work serving the people of Connecticut.
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