Wells Fargo & Co. is in the market with a $270 million package of nonperforming residential mortgages, according to investors and investment bankers who play in the space.
A frequent seller of NPLs, Wells is acting as its own broker. A bank spokeswoman did not return a telephone call about the matter.
The market for nonperforming product has been quite active the past few months with several small to medium-sized packages coming to market. In January Fulton Financial Corp., Lancaster, Pa., sold a $35 million NPL pool to an unspecified investor.
In late December, Citigroup agreed to sell at least $82 million of NPLs to PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, Calabasas, Calif., a publicly traded REIT. (Citigroup is also a repo lender to PennyMac.) No purchase price was disclosed.
There have been frequent rumors of large $1 billion NPL packages coming from Bank of America, and Aurora Loan Services, but with no solid confirmation.
ALS, which is on the auction block, is trying to clean up its balance sheet before being sold. Nationstar Mortgage, a division of Fortress Investment Group, is considered the leading bidder for ALS.
