Mr. Cooper Group Inc. is acquiring servicing rights on $24 billion in mortgages, a subservicing contract for an additional $24 billion in loans and the Seterus mortgage servicing platform from IBM. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We are excited to welcome more than 300,000 customers and the Seterus team to the Mr. Cooper Group family. 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,” said Jay Bray, chairman and CEO of Mr. Cooper Group Inc. “This transaction is consistent with our outlook for profitability targets and portfolio growth.”
Mr. Cooper expects to fund the acquisition with financing on the mortgage servicing rights and cash. Subject to regulatory approvals, the transaction is targeted to close in the first quarter 2019.
“IBM acquired Seterus in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to help a client manage a portfolio of distressed loans. We were successful in this mortgage servicing work and the portfolio is now much more stable,” said Jay Bellissimo, general manager for cognitive process transformation at IBM Global Business Services. “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.”
NBKC Invests in MortTech Organization
Nbkc Bank has invested in ProPair, which employs artificial intelligence to optimize the distribution and prioritization of mortgage leads to individual loan officers, rather than a distribution based on seniority or other factors.
As the first customer of ProPair, Nbkc piloted the software in the bank’s home loan division. “We have tremendous confidence and respect for ProPair’s founders and experienced first-hand how its smart pairing improves customer experience and loan officers’ success,” said Eric Garretson, CFO & fintech strategy leader at Nbkc.
“Having NBKC as our first customer enabled us to develop and test our product before launching at scale” said Devon Johnson, co-founder and chief data officer of ProPair.
