The volume of originations NewRez has targeted for 2019 is around $15 billion, double the $7.2 billion in originations the company completed in 2018. NewRez, formerly New Penn, is a subsidiary of New Residential Investment Corp.

“As we look at 2019, a lot of that [growth] has to do with our own recapture and some growth around some different divisions of the origination business,” said Michael Nierenberg, CEO of New Residential, during the company’s quarterly earnings call. The company distributed documentation prior to the call that projected 2019 origination volume of $10 billion to $15 billion.

For instance, non-quality mortgage origination volume increased to $380 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, from $20 million in the first quarter of 2018. “We've continued to be very excited about that business,” said Nierenberg. “And, you’ll see more and more issuance from us as we go forward.”

NewRez added 100 employees in 2018, for a total of 130, and a 300 percent increase since the start of the year, to handle the mortgage servicing recapture business.

The aim is to maintain the portfolio “to have somebody be able to call a mortgage customer and offer a suite of services under the NewRez name,” said Nierenberg. “We have a number of different folks working on different parts of that whether it would be the MSR portfolio and the net interest income generated from that, the ancillary services side, the origination side or the servicing side from a revenue stream that way.”

Last year, mortgage rates rose 56 basis points, and mortgage servicing rights increased in value. As rates rise prepayment slowdowns, the value of the asset goes up.

So mortgage servicing rights went up quite a bit. The share of mortgages eligible for refinancing dropped to 9 percent, from 29 percent, though New Residential’s “portfolio is even lower than that because we have some credit impaired assets on our balance sheet,” said Nierenberg.

“We have three million customers whether we own the full MSR or the excess MSR,” said Nierenberg. “Our goal is to keep that cash flow going for as long as possible and try to maintain 15 percent to 20 percent return on equity on that MSR asset. The more recapture we do around that asset the better it's going to be for our company and our shareholders.”