Company: Countrywide Financial Corporation
Company Description: Countrywide Financial Corporation is a leading provider of consumer and business-to-business financial services providing mortgage banking and loan closing services through its subsidiaries: Countrywide Home Loans and LandSafe, Inc. and its family of companies. Other diversified businesses in the Countrywide family include Insurance, Capital Markets, Banking and Global Operations.
Nomination Category: Corporate Literature & Investor Relations
Nomination Sub Category: Best Investor Relations Program

Nomination Title: Countrywide's 2004 Investor Relations Program

   1. Tell the story about this nominated investor relations program in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The mission of the Investor Relations program (“IR”) at Countrywide Financial
Corporation (“CFC”) is to promote equilibrium between the intrinsic value and
market value of CFC’s stock by maintaining effective communication channels with
the investment community.

With this overarching goal in mind, during 2004 IR developed a multi-tiered,
proactive communications objective composed of the following:
a. Maintaining a continuous, open dialogue with buy-side investment
analysts;
b. Leveraging sell-side analyst relationships to better communicate the
CFC story to investors; and,
c. Providing more opportunities for direct communication with CFC’s
operating management.
The intended effect was to build a broader base of investors for increased trading
liquidity, to raise the Company’s profile on the street, and to enhance the
visibility of CFC’s operating management before the investment community.

Tactics utilized to accomplish these goals included:
a. Hosting three, two-day, interactive, Investor Forums to bring investors
face-to-face with senior management;
b. Participation in nine sell-side conferences supplemented by a full day
of one-on-one meetings with analysts;
c. Conducting marketing trips in 16 targeted cities to meet with
institutional investors;
d. Hosting 16 on-site visits/field trips by investors;
e. Conducting more than 1,500 conference calls with investors throughout
the year to help them further their knowledge; and,
f. Supplementing direct interaction with our website – a unique,
information-rich communications vehicle that is managed and maintained directly
by IR. 
These were accomplished in the face of challenges such as a rising interest rate
environment, accounting scandals at other firms within the industry, and strict
regulatory requirements regarding communications with investors.

All efforts met with success. Over the course of 2004, the number of CFC
institutional investors increased by 7%, as the stock appreciated over 46%.  This
compares favorably to 9% growth in the S&P500.  The three Investor Forums met
with continued increased participation.  Investor conferences were oftentimes
standing room only, and due to overwhelming demand, there were wait-lists for one-on-one meetings.  Website traffic increased 60% over last year with over 400,000 hits.  Investor communication efforts were further validated by our recent Ranking by Institutional Investor magazine for our IR program.  Moreover, achievement of the collective effort was confirmed through a perception study in which analysts rated us over 90% in terms of satisfaction in regard to our investor forums in comparison to our peers, press releases, earnings conference calls, and website.

The following quotes capture the enthusiastic response by the investment
community:
“The general level and timeliness of disclosure is the best I have seen from any
company in 30 years!  Keep up the good work.  And, congratulations… on a
brilliant job.” – Jonathan Gray (Bernstein Investment Research)
“CFC… has the best IR program.  When asked, I frequently discuss CFC as a
model.  Keep up the good work….” – Mike McMahon (Sandler O’Neill)
“I think the Investor Relations team at CFC is very strong.  They are responsive,
helpful and knowledgeable.” – Michael Schepps (College Retirement Employee
Fund)

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

News Articles
http://about.countrywide.com/inthenews/docs/5.04.pdf
http://about.countrywide.com/inthenews/docs/6.16.04.pdf
Investor's Business Daily, 12/29/2003, "Managing For Success; Welcoming New
Era Of Openess," article on Countrywide's Investor Relations efforts available in
hard-copy.
Website
http://about.countrywide.com/Relation/Relation.aspx
Investor Presentations
http://about.countrywide.com/Presentations/all.aspx
Press Releases
http://about.countrywide.com/PressRelease/PressReleases.aspx?ir=yes
Annual Report
http://about.countrywide.com/AnnualReports/AnnualReports.aspx?ir=yes
Stock Information
http://about.countrywide.com/StockInformation/StockInformation.aspx

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this nominated investor relations program:

David Bigelow, Managing Director of Investor Relations, joined Countrywide in 1993 and has held a variety of executive level finance positions within the company,
most recently serving as Managing Director of Strategic Planning and Corporate
Development.  Previously, Mr. Bigelow held management and senior consultant
positions with Deloitte & Touche.

Lisa Riordan, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations, possesses over 15
years of experience in corporate communications.  Previously, Ms. Riordan served
as head of Investor Relations and Public Relations for Bergen Brunswig
Corporation where she built the investor and public relations function and managed
communication efforts through several mergers and acquisitions.