Wells Fargo has acquired approximately $51 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Seneca Mortgage Investments, a real estate investment firm in New York.
The financial terms of were not disclosed, but the transaction will be reflected in Wells' third-quarter results, the company said in a press release Wednesday. The underlying loans in the portfolio are conforming loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
"Mortgage servicing is an attractive, core business for Wells Fargo, and this transaction provides an opportunity for us to strategically enhance our servicing portfolio," said Franklin Codel, head of consumer lending for Wells Fargo, in the release.
The acquisition comes as Wells continues to navigate a reputational crisis, amid a string of scandals in its retail bank. The San Francisco company's once-marquee brand has remained tarnished over the past year by revelations that employees created
In some ways, the deal marks the beginning of a new chapter for Wells' mortgage servicing unit, which services a portfolio of about $1.5 trillion as of June 30.
Wells was
The deal announced Thursday may represent a key test of the technology and procedures that Wells has implemented since then to onboard and service new mortgage customers.
Wells Fargo services its mortgages with Loansphere MSP, a servicing system of record from vendor Black Knight Financial Services that handles more than half of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S. Nationstar uses a proprietary servicing system of record.
Seneca Mortgage Investments was formed in 2013 as a joint venture of Arbor Commercial Mortgage, along with affiliates of the asset manager GSO Capital Partners, and investment adviser EJF Capital.
Seneca Mortgage Investments in 2016 hired
Nationstar
