New Residential closes purchase of PHH's Fannie MSRs

PHH Corp. transferred ownership of the largest chunk of its remaining mortgage servicing rights — its Fannie Mae portfolio — to New Residential Investment Corp.

The portfolio had 302,017 loans with an unpaid principal balance of $39.8 billion, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

PHH is subservicing these loans, and they are covered by the same portfolio defense/refinancing agreement reached when it sold the $13.2 billion Freddie Mac portfolio to New Residential in June.

This brings New Residential's total of MSRs acquired from PHH so far to $52.9 billion.

PHH has committed to sell New Residential an additional $14.1 billion of MSRs, but it is awaiting the consent of the investors in the underlying loans, the filing said.

Estimated proceeds to PHH for the Fannie Mae portfolio was $368 million, consisting of $310 million for the purchase price, $24 million for servicing advances and $34 million held for indemnification claims and document deficiencies. This brings PHH's total proceeds so far to $488 million. The proceeds for those remaining MSRs are expected to be $347 million, according to the SEC filing.

Besides the remaining commitment to New Residential, PHH has agreed to sell an additional $2.8 billion of MSRs. Most of that is going to Lakeview Loan Servicing, which purchased PHH's Ginnie Mae portfolio, the filing said.

Lakeview acquired a $10.2 billion Ginnie Mae MSR portfolio in the first quarter from PHH, plus an additional $1 billion in May, for total proceeds of $93 million.

There is an additional $2.1 billion of MSRs that PHH does not have a sales commitment for.