A name was finally given to the buyer of $45 billion of Ocwen (OCN) mortgage-servicing rights, which was first reported on at the beginning of March.
According to an article in Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) purchased the portfolio, bringing the bank’s portfolio for overseeing billing, collections and foreclosures on U.S. mortgages to nearly $1 trillion.
Ocwen said March 2 that it had signed a letter of intent to sell a rights portfolio of that size to a firm it didn’t identify. The 277,000 underlying debts are performing loans owned by Fannie Mae, and Ocwen said it expects to complete the transaction by mid-year and hand off the servicing during the second half.
In March, Ocwen Financial Corporation disclosed several sizable transactions involving its mortgage servicing, including the sale of a $9.8 MSR billion portfolio to Nationstar Mortgage (NSM).
At the same time as that release, the company also agreed to sell a MSR portfolio consisting of approximately 277,000 performing agency loans owned by Fannie Mae with a total unpaid principal balance of approximately $45 billion to an undisclosed buyer, which is now reported to be JPMorgan.
In December, Ocwen CEO Ron Faris said the company planned to exit agency servicing entirely.
“Subject to a definitive agreement, approvals by Fannie Mae and Federal Housing Finance Agency and other customary conditions, Ocwen expects the transaction to close by mid-year and the loan servicing to transfer over the course of the second half of 2015,” the company said.
In total, Ocwen said that it is “on track” to sell agency MSRs for approximately $55 billion in unpaid principal balance in the next six months for prices “significantly above its estimated carrying value.”
Both JPMorgan and Ocwen declined to comment.
