OneWest Bank’s decision to sell $78 billion in unpaid principal balance of mortgage servicing rights and related servicing advance receivables to Ocwen Financial continues the trend of banks unloading servicing with special servicers. However, the deal is unique in that OneWest’s owners have been looking to cash out of the entire banking operation for a while. Ocwen announced late last week that it will buy the MSRs and servicing advance receivables for $2.53 billion, with the sale expected to close in stages this year. “We have entered into a definitive agreement with Ocwen Loan Servicing to sell our third-party mortgage servicing rights for forward mortgages in order to sharpen our focus on developing a leading regional banking franchise,” said Joseph Otting, president and CEO of OneWest. The bank was...