Ally Financial will look to sell off the rest of its mortgage business after bankruptcy concludes for its independent subsidiary Residential Capital.
In a conference call with investors Tuesday, Ally executives said they plan to sell an additional $1.3 billion in mortgage servicing rights owned by Ally Bank as part of the wind down.
“You can live in your car if you don’t pay your mortgage,” said Ally CEO Michael Carpenter. “I don’t mean to be cute, but the fact is people make their car payment before they pay their mortgage.”
A bid from Nationstar Mortgage Holdings (NSM) to buy $374 billion in MSRs from ResCap is pending as part of the bankruptcy filed Monday.
Ally Bank will continue to sell new mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rather than through ResCap, but it does still have the ability to sell Federal Housing Administration and other Ginnie Mae home loans to ResCap until the bankruptcy is completed at the end of the year.
Ally executives said until the bankruptcy Ally Bank will use ResCap as a subservicer.
But the bank plans to eventually reduce its exposure to the mortgage business. Total mortgage assets represent 9% of the bank balance sheet. Executives said they plan to unwind $1.8 billion in loans held-for-sale, $1.4 billion in warehouse lines and the $1.3 billion in Ally Bank servicing rights.
Another $9.3 billion in mortgages held for investment should amortize over time, Carpenter said. He added the reason Ally failed a bank stress earlier in the year is because of its exposure to mortgages.
“After you sell the Ally Bank MSRs, you will see a very clean auto finance company,” said Ally corporate planning executive Jeffrey Brown.
