Bank of America is exploring the idea of selling roughly $40 billion of mortgage servicing rights tied to Freddie Mac loans, according to servicing officials and investors who have been briefed about the plan.
Late Thursday night a BofA spokesman said the company does not comment on “rumors and speculation.” A Freddie Mac spokesman said the GSE does not comment on any pending transfers of its MSRs.
One advisor, requesting his name not be used, said the sale of servicing may not have been the bank’s idea, and was forced upon B of A by Freddie. The GSE, he said, has not been happy with the servicing of the underlying loans.
It’s understood the MSRs in question are now housed in B of A’s newly created Legacy Asset Servicing Group, which contains about $1 trillion in MSRs, most of which came from the troubled Countrywide Financial Corp. franchise.
One source said a “handful” of investors have already been shown the MSR package.
Over the past three years both Freddie and its sister company, Fannie Mae, have forced certain seller/servicers to transfer MSRs when the servicing of the loans does not meet their standards.
