What's Up with IBM and Servicing?

We continue to hear reports from industry officials about how International Business Machines is jockeying for market position as regulators make it less enticing for the nation's megabanks to hold mortgage servicing rights on their balance sheet. But despite several reports in National Mortgage News about all the MSR contracts IBM's Wilshire division is handling for JPMorgan Chase, IBM continues to be totally mum regarding its mortgage plans. And it's still unclear whether IBM actually owns MSRs or whether it's acting as a subservicer for JPM and others. Of course, since IBM isn't a bank, it doesn't have to worry about MSRs and capital rules. We also heard (unconfirmed) that IBM did, in fact, buy at least some MSRs from JPM and paid a premium. (These purchases happened last year.) It would be nice to hear from 'Big Blue' about what it's up to in the mortgage space, but for now, we'll have to rely on the word of others. One servicing advisor warned me that it's a waste of time looking at IBM's quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Whatever they're up to in mortgages is probably not considered a 'material event' for them," he said. Meanwhile, in Friday's conference call with analysts, JPM's Jamie Dimon hinted that the bank will continue to weigh the benefits of moving certain assets off-balance sheet as accounting rules change. It sounded to me like he was talking about MSRs…