Mortgage servicing firm Cenlar opening first Missouri office

Cenlar FSB, a mortgage subservicer with headquarters in New Jersey, plans on adding 500 jobs in O'Fallon, Mo., as it effectively takes over the mortgage servicing operations of Citigroup.

The jobs are tied to a shift in strategy at Citi, which has its CitiMortgage unit based in O'Fallon and last year began to focus more on making mortgage loans rather than servicing them.

Cenlar's new Missouri office, its first in the state, will be located on the first floor in a wing of Citi's building at 1000 Technology Drive and staffed with mostly loan servicing professionals, along with some administrative support and operations employees.

The company is eligible to receive up to $6.95 million in state tax incentives through the Missouri Works program and another $100,000 through Skilled Workforce Missouri, a state spokeswoman said.

Citi in January 2017 agreed to sell some 780,000 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans worth approximately $97 billion to New Residential Mortgage LLC for $950 million. At the same time, Cenlar struck a deal with Citi to subservice its remaining loans not sold to New Residential Mortgage.

Under the deal, Cenlar agreed to provide all core operations, customer service and default operations for the loans.

With approximately 3,500 employees in O'Fallon, Citi is one of St. Charles County's largest employers and is the biggest in O'Fallon, according to the most recent data from the Economic Development Center of St. Charles County. That number is down, however, from about 3,800 employees in 2017.

"A robust experienced talent pool made O'Fallon the perfect location for our expansion," said Cenlar Chairman, President and CEO Gregory Tornquist in a statement. "And, as Cenlar continues to grow, so do the needs and demands of our clients. Opening an operation center in Missouri was the next logical step in making sure we can exceed our clients' expectations every day."

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