Ocwen Financial Corp. agreed to sell mortgage servicing rights
on an additional $25 billion of loans held by Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc., as the embattled
mortgage-servicing company continues to scale back its
business.
The deal comes just hours after Ocwen disclosed late Monday that
it had been threatened with a possible delisting by the New York
Stock Exchange for failing to file its 2014 annual financial
statement on time, and that it wasn't certain when it would file
the required statements.
Ocwen shares fell 11% to $7.80 in recent premarket trading.
Chief Executive Ron Faris said in a news release that the
"transaction, on top of the one announced in February between Ocwen
and Nationstar, furthers our announced corporate strategy and
demonstrates the strong working relationship we have developed with
Nationstar."
Ocwen has been selling off its servicing rights for mortgages
owned by the government-supported entities Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac and intends to focus on so-called nonagency mortgages. Ahead of
Tuesday's planned sale, the company had already announced
agreements to sell about $65 billion of those rights for more than
$600 million.
It reached a deal in February to sell $9.8 billion in servicing
rights to Nationstar and later sold additional servicing rights to
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Green Tree Loan Servicing LLC.
Mortgage servicers collect payments from homeowners and
distribute the payments to investors who own the loans through
mortgage securities.
Nationstar CEO Jay Bray said his company plans to continue to
work cooperatively with Ocwen as it evaluates the sale of
additional agency portfolios.
The NYSE warning followed a series of challenges for Ocwen. The
company agreed in December to pay $150 million, and William Erbey,
its executive chairman, agreed to step down after New York state's
Department of Financial Services alleged Ocwen had engaged in
improper servicing practices for distressed-mortgage borrowers and
had questionable dealings with affiliated companies.
Ocwen said the principal reason it had missed deadlines to make
the disclosures was because it needed more time "to analyze and
review" an affiliated company that finances the purchase of
mortgage-servicing rights for Ocwen. The company is looking into
whether the company, Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd., has the
"ability to continue to meet its obligations to fund new servicing
advances."
Ocwen didn't explain if the affiliate, HLSS, was facing
financial or liquidity constraints, but it said "a failure by HLSS
to fund new servicing advances could have a material negative
impact on the Company's financial condition."
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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