The chief executive of
Following his resignation, former CEO Jason Kopcak announced the start of his own consulting business. Danya Sawyer, chief operating officer of Altisource's Alternative Lending Group, took over as the temporary head of the company.
Kopcak, a former Wall Street executive, was originally hired as president during a company reorganization in March 2022 and appointed CEO last July.
Prior to joining AAMC, Sawyer was a senior vice president at mortgage services platform Consolidated Analytics.
The changing of the guard comes following a performance review that has resulted in a series of cost-cutting initiatives at the company, a publicly-traded firm that acquires, originates and manages mortgages, securitizations and equity investments.
The company also announced at one point last year that it had experimented with crypto-enabled ATMs, but by the time Kopcak moved up in July 2022 it indicated it was only assessing that business. It no longer lists crypto ATMs as one of its main business lines.
"We remain committed to the mortgage space," said Ricardo Byrd, chairman of the board, said in the press release issued Wednesday to announce the change in leadership at the company.
Expense reductions at AAMC have included staff cuts across all business lines and diminished use of third-party professional services. The company also closed a subsidiary in Tampa, Florida, and redistributed its functions to other operations.
Other actions the company has taken with the aim of improving its finances include cutting back on its use of short-term lines of credit, with a $20.2 million reduction in LOCs.
"These are pivotal steps forward which we believe will facilitate a sustainable mortgage operation," Byrd said.
Among the expenses the company has been working to offset have been litigation expenses.
AAMC recently announced in a second-quarter earnings report that the courts handed it a favorable ruling in a lawsuit over contractual obligations with Luxor, its preferred shareholder. It's also proceeding with a separate lawsuit against BlackRock and PIMCO.
The trading value of the company's stock opened slightly lower than the previous day's close on Wednesday at $8.50 as compared to $8.89. However, by noon on the East Coast AAMC's shares had recovered somewhat and were trading at $8.86.
The company is based in Christiansted, a town on St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was originally spun off from industry services provider Altisource SA to specialize in services for real-estate investment vehicles.
AAMC has survived a series of transitions over time.
Prior to its reorganization last year, its shares were temporarily delisted due to a lack of operations when it became an internally managed real estate investment trust after
Companies bearing the Altisource name are successors to a group of mortgage-related entities that all once had ties to William Erbey, the founder of servicer Ocwen Financial Corp.
