Thanks to TBW/Freddie Deal and Others, Cenlar Now No. 1 Subservicer

Cenlar FSB has leapfrogged over Dovenmuehle to become the nation's largest subservicing vendor thanks to a new contract with Freddie Mac as well as strong growth in its core primary business. Company senior vice president Dave Miller said the New Jersey-based firm has benefited from the GSEs wanting mortgage bankers of all sizes to retain servicing, making these lenders have "more skin in the game." However, many small- to medium-sized nonbanks (and depositories) are opting to use a subservicer instead of building the infrastructure themselves. "Some mortgage bankers used to sell everything they originated 100% servicing-released but that's changing," he said. Also, lenders have complained about the poor premium they receive from aggregators when they sell servicing-released. At June 30, Cenlar ranked third among all subservicers with $46 billion in contracts but saw its business spike to $93 billion in the third quarter. A large chunk of that growth came from 260,000 loans once serviced by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. When TBW went bankrupt a few months back Freddie Mac — which controls the servicing rights on its loans — looked for a subservicer and eventually decided on Cenlar. For years Dovenmuehle Mortgage of Illinois has ranked first among subservicers. At Sept. 30, Dovenmuehle had roughly $70 billion in contracts, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.