Walter Investment Management Corp. (NYSE: WAC) today closed two previously announced acquisitions of mortgage servicing rights with $40 billion of unpaid principal balance.
“We are pleased to have closed on these transactions as we continue to build out our best in class servicing operations,” said Chairman and CEO Mark J. O’Brien in a statement. “We take our obligations as a servicer very seriously and will endeavor to continue to provide the highest level of service and solutions to support continued home ownership on behalf of the consumer and our clients.”
The announcement follows on the heels of recent scrutiny arriving from federal regulators taking aim at non-bank mortgage servicers, including Walter, Ocwen Financial (NYSEL OCN) and Nationstar Mortgage (NYSE: NSM).
The rate at which these non-bank services buy up mortgage servicing rights has some regulators saying that these corporations are “getting too big, too fast.”
In February, Walter—the parent company to Reverse Mortgage Solutions and Security One Lending—saw its reverse business hit the “bottom” during the fourth quarter of 2013, suggesting recent product changes and new servicing guidelines impacted origination volumes and servicing profitability.
Also during that month, the company said it was getting out of the wholesale business for “forward” lending via its Green Tree subsidiary, however, it would continue to operate its reverse mortgage wholesale operations via RMS and Security One.
Written by Jason Oliva
