Mr. Cooper Group (the company formerly known as Nationstar) purchased IBM’s Seterus mortgage servicing platform in a deal announced Thursday, which includes $24 billion in government sponsored enterprise mortgages and a subservicing contract for $24 billion.
“We are excited to welcome more than 300,000 customers and the Seterus team to the Mr. Cooper Group family,” said Mr. Cooper Group Chairman and CEO Jay Bray.
“We are confident our new team will be energized by our people-first culture, and our new customers will benefit from our user-friendly mobile and online tools designed to help them manage their home finances,” Bray continued. “This transaction is consistent with our outlook for profitability targets and portfolio growth.”
Jay Bellissimo, of IBM’s Global Business Services, said the company acquired Seterus after the financial crisis to help a client handle a portfolio of distressed loans.
“We were successful in this mortgage servicing work and the portfolio is now much more stable. The time is now right to divest this business, which is no longer core to IBM’s portfolio, to a mortgage servicing specialist whose domain expertise and scale can further advance this business,” Bellissimo said.
Mr. Cooper said it expects to fund the purchase with cash as well as financing on the mortgage servicing rights. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019, pending regulatory approval.
