Green Tree Servicing is gone.
Last month, HousingWire reported that Green Tree’s days were numbered, after Green Tree’s parent company, Walter Investment Management Corp. (WAC), announced quietly that it planned to merge Green Tree with another of Walter Investment’s well-known subsidiaries, Ditech Mortgage Corp, to form a new company, ditech, a Walter company.
Walter Investment announced Wednesday that the merger is now complete.
The full legal name of the company will be Ditech Financial LLC, but the company will operate as ditech, a Walter company.
The merger was actually announced in February when Walter Investment released its full-year results for 2014, but the merger is now complete.
As of Tuesday, visitors to Green Tree’s website, greentreeservicing.com, were automatically redirected to ditech.com.
In February, Mark O’Brien, Walter Investment’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the move to merge the two companies was being made to “drive efficiencies” within the company.
“By consolidating our Green Tree and Ditech brands under the name ‘Ditech, a Walter Company’ and enhancing focus on the use of technology, we will drive efficiencies through the reduction of duplicative functions and cost structures and become a stronger, more unified end-to-end mortgage company,” O’Brien said in February.
With the merger now complete, Walter Investments’ origination and servicing businesses now operate under the ditech umbrella.
“We believe the completion of our customer-focused originations and servicing integration under the Ditech brand will simplify many processes, improving the quality of our customers' experience as they do business with us, as well as drive operational efficiencies,” O’Brien said Wednesday in release announcing the completion of the merger.
Ditech will be led by co-presidents, Patti Cook, who will serve as president of Ditech Originations and David Schneider, who will serve as president of Ditech Servicing.
Walter Investment also said in February that the merger of Green Tree and ditech will help the company’s bottom line.
The company said that additional cost-savings of “at least $35 million have been identified with approximately $25 million expected to be realized in 2015 related to capturing opportunities for enhanced benefits from shared services, the consolidation of Green Tree Servicing and Ditech in the second half 2015 and a significant acceleration of automation efforts which will increase efficiencies company-wide.”
By divesting itself of the Green Tree name, Walter Investment leaves behind Green Tree’s legacy, which included a $63 million fine by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission for “mistreating borrowers” by failing to honor modifications for loans transferred from other servicers, demanding payments before providing loss mitigation options, delaying decisions on short sales, and harassing and threatening overdue borrowers.
“Green Tree failed consumers who were struggling by prioritizing collecting payments over helping homeowners,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said at the time. “When homeowners in distress had their mortgages transferred to Green Tree, their previous foreclosure relief plans were not maintained. We are holding Green Tree accountable for its unlawful conduct.”
Green Tree said at the time that it agreed to the terms of the settlement, "without admitting or denying any allegations."
O’Brien said the settlement was in the best interest of Green Tree, its consumers, its clients and its shareholders.
“As a company, we have been and continue to be committed to properly serving homeowners and helping them remain in their homes,” O’Brien said in April. “We continue to develop and deploy best practices in our servicing operations and believe these standards will serve us well as we partner with our consumers to support them in their goal to achieve sustainable homeownership.”
But now, Green Tree is no more.
