Ocwen Financial gets closer to detente with the states

A new settlement with Massachusetts resolves all outstanding administrative actions against Ocwen Financial Corp. by a group of 30 states, but two states' legal actions against the mortgage servicer remain outstanding.

"With the resolution with Massachusetts, the company has resolved all of the administrative actions taken by state regulators in April 2017," John Lovallo, a spokesman for Ocwen, said in a press release.

"Ocwen continues to seek resolutions with the Massachusetts Attorney General, which brought separate proceedings against Ocwen, and with the Florida Attorney General, which brought a proceeding together with the Florida regulatory agency."

The servicer agreed to pay $1 million to the Massachusetts Mortgage Education Trust to settle the state's administrative action.

Ocwen settlement update

"The company and the Massachusetts regulatory agency also agreed on a schedule pursuant to which Ocwen will regain eligibility to acquire mortgage servicing rights on Massachusetts loans," according to the company's 8-K Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Ocwen must meet certain thresholds as it transitions to a new servicing platform to regain that eligibility.

"All restrictions on Massachusetts MSR acquisitions will be lifted when Ocwen completes the second phase of a three-phase data integrity audit which will be conducted by an independent third party following completion of Ocwen's servicing platform transition," according to the SEC filing.

The company also agreed "to certain additional review and remediation obligations."

Ocwen's transition to Black Knight's servicing system is a condition of many of its regulatory settlements, and Ocwen's planned acquisition of PHH Corp. is aimed in part at accelerating the technological change.

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MSR Enforcement actions State regulators Ocwen Financial Massachusetts Florida
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