The servicing transfer from Wells Fargo to Ocwen Financial that had been on hold for more than eight months was cancelled last week by the two firms. Scrutiny from the New York Department of Financial Services prompted Ocwen to place the transfer on hold in February. The transfer was first announced in January and would have involved servicing on non-agency mortgage-backed securities with an unpaid principal balance of $35.9 billion along with $3.3 billion in mortgages serviced for ...

Wells Fargo is not expected to take new bids – at least anytime soon – on a highly delinquent $39 billion non-agency servicing portfolio that Ocwen Financial failed to buy because of all the regulatory scrutiny the nonbank is facing. However, servicing advisors who have seen some of the details on the portfolio contend that Wells may eventually try to unload the package next year, but is by no means under the gun to do so. “One thing you have to keep in mind is...

Although residential lenders are coming off a better than expected production quarter – and enjoying a decent last three months of the year – analysts and investors seem undecided on whether there’s opportunity in the market or it’s time to stay on the sidelines. Several high profile publicly traded shops that are considered “high touch” specialists – Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment – continue to trade at steep discounts to their 52-week highs with all three facing possible class-action lawsuits from angry investors who’ve seen billions of dollars in stock equity evaporate over the past year. And then there’s...

Numerous mortgage banking trade groups from across the U.S. urged the Conference of State Bank Supervisors to hold off on making changes to the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System mortgage call report (MCR) until after the CFPB’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rulemaking is final and the bureau’s integrated disclosures have been implemented. The MCR proposal, released Oct. 1, 2014, would expand the current data collected to create a new definition of “application,” and it would require reporting on the amount and count of closed loans classified as qualified mortgages under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule.Further, the proposal would require additional nationwide and state-specific servicing reporting, along with additional fields to capture changes in loan amount between the time of application and ...

Ocwen Financial is working on a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services regarding various servicing-related concerns raised by the state regulator. The $100 million in legal reserves that Ocwen booked in the third quarter of 2014 for a potential settlement is the minimum the company expects to spend, according to William Erbey, Ocwen’s chairman. “I would caution that this does not mean that we have settled with the [NYDFS] ... [Includes two briefs]

A proposal from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors to increase reporting requirements on state mortgage call reports has been met with strong resistance from a number of lender trade groups. In October, the CSBS proposed collecting additional quarterly information regarding qualified mortgages and servicing, among other data submitted as part of the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry’s mortgage call report. The comment period closed late last week. “We join...

Late this week, Ocwen Financial Corp. announced that it has set aside $100 million for a possible regulatory settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, a move that couldn’t come too soon for the troubled “high-touch” servicer. But the company also cautioned that a settlement with the NYDFS is hardly a sure thing. More-over, some Ocwen watchers believe a deal with New York could spur other state regulators to take action against the company. One consultant who has done work for Ocwen told...

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors this week formed a task force on mortgage servicing rights to develop options for capital requirements for nonbank servicers. The task force includes representatives from nine state regulators, including the New York Department of Financial Services.

The New York Department of Financial Services has found serious issues at Ocwen Financial, including the backdating of “potentially hundreds of thousands” of letters to borrowers, the NYDFS said in a letter to the nonbank servicer released this week. The allegations could be the most damaging yet for Ocwen, which has faced concerns from the NYDFS since February when Ocwen placed a planned $39.2 billion mortgage acquisition on indefinite hold in an effort to resolve issues raised by the agency ...