Rithm Capital floats separation of mortgage business

Rithm Capital said it is exploring the idea of splitting off its mortgage operation as it focuses on growing its alternative asset business. Expressing frustration with what he said was undervaluation of Rithm's equity price, CEO Michael Nierenberg said the company was "evaluating alternatives for our mortgage company and will likely file an S-1 in the coming month." The form is typically filed when a company announces plans for a public listing.? "This will allow us to create other pools of liquidity to the extent [that] we create a public entity and further diversify our business model," Nierenberg said in the company's first-quarter earnings call.?

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Powell: Fed made 'mistakes' in regulation and supervision on his watch

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank has made regulatory mistakes on his watch and he holds himself accountable for addressing them. "I've been chairing the board for five-plus years now, and I fully recognize that we made mistakes," Powell said, nodding to the three banks that have failed during the past two months. "I think we've learned some new things as well, and we need to do better." Powell addressed the failures and last week's report from Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr on the Fed's own supervisory shortcomings during his post Federal Open Market Committee press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Mortgage rates slip slightly after Fed hike

The latest 25 basis point short-term rate hike , followed by news of a likely pause in further increases by the Federal Open Market Committee, is good news for housing, industry observers on the move say. More immediately, the 30-year fixed rate loan as measured by the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey declined for the first time in three weeks, down 4 basis points to 6.39% from 6.43% on April 27. For this same week last year , this loan averaged 5.27%.?

Ocwen halves net loss, targets subservicing growth

Ocwen Financial re-stated its plans to grow through additional subservicing and "capital light" MSR investment partnerships following a reduced quarterly loss linked to valuation changes. The company reported a net loss of $40 million due largely to fluctuations in the value of mortgage servicing rights, but it improved on its numbers on a consecutive-quarter basis due to revenue growth and cost cutting. Ocwen had recorded an $80 million net loss the previous quarter, when servicing valuations fell and originations were slow. A year earlier, Ocwen recorded $58 million in net income on servicing-related gains.

Finance of America adds Ocwen as a reverse mortgage subservicer

Finance of America Reverse has entered into a subservicing agreement with PHH Mortgage, a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In March, Finance of America renewed its relationship with its primary subservicer Celink . Its hybrid proprietary product was being subserviced by ServiceMac, according to the 2022 10-K filing. The new deal gives FAR an option for a secondary subservicer. The company had 62,879 reverse mortgages in its servicing portfolio with an active loan unpaid principal balance of $17.9 billion at the end of 2022, according to the filing.?

First Horizon, TD Bank call off long delayed merger

The long-running — and oft-delayed merger of TD Bank Group and First Horizon — was called off early Thursday, with both companies citing insurmountable regulatory hurdles. The deal, valued at $13.4 billion when it was announced in February 2022 , was originally expected to close in the fall of 2022. But it was delayed several times as the banks worked to navigate intense scrutiny of the transaction. The Biden administration called for ramped-up examinations of pending mergers and acquisitions over the past couple of years, particularly large deals, and the TD-First Horizon combination got caught in the crosshairs of this shift.

20 states with the highest average mortgage size

The top five states in the ranking have an average mortgage size for home purchases of $512,836 in 2022. Home purchase prices have been steadily increasing since the start of the pandemic when the average purchase price across all states was $374,500. ? The data in this list was sourced from LendingTree.com . Scroll through National Mortgage News’ list see which states are in the top 20 and how they fared in 2022.

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