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NOTE 28 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Related Party Transactions Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 28 RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS


Although Altisource is a separate company from Ocwen after the Separation, Altisource and Ocwen have the same Chairman of the Board, William C. Erbey. As a result, he has obligations to Ocwen as well as to Altisource. Mr. Erbey currently owns approximately 14% of the common stock of Ocwen and owns approximately 23% of the common stock of Altisource.


For purposes of governing certain of the ongoing relationships between Ocwen and Altisource after the Separation, and to provide for an orderly transition to the status of two independent companies, we entered into certain agreements with Altisource. Under these agreements, Altisource and Ocwen provide to each other services in such areas as human resources, vendor management, corporate services, six sigma, quality assurance, quantitative analytics, treasury, accounting, tax matters, risk management, law, strategic planning, compliance and other areas where we, and Altisource, may need transition assistance and support following the Separation. Altisource also provides certain technology products and support services to us, including the REALSuite™ of applications that support our Servicing business. In addition, in the third quarter of 2011, Ocwen and Altisource entered into a Data Access and Services Agreement under which Ocwen agreed to make available to Altisource certain data from Ocwen’s servicing portfolio in exchange for a per asset fee.


Certain services provided by Altisource under these contracts are charged to the borrower and/or loan investor. Accordingly, such services, while derived from our loan servicing portfolio, are not reported as expenses by Ocwen. These services include residential property valuation, residential property preservation and inspection services, title services and real estate sales.


 Our business is currently dependent on many of the services and products provided under these long-term contracts which are effective for up to eight years with renewal rights. We believe the rates charged under these agreements are market rates as they are materially consistent with one or more of the following: the fees charged by Altisource to other customers for comparable services and the rates Ocwen pays to or observes from other service providers.


For the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010, we generated revenues of $12,242 and $13,520 respectively, under our agreements with Altisource, principally from fees for providing referral services to Altisource. We also incurred expenses of $23,226 and $20,082 for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively, principally for technology products and support services including the REALSuite™ of products that support our Servicing business. For the period from August 10, 2009 through December 31, 2009, we generated $3,534 of revenues and incurred $6,858 of expenses under our agreements with Altisource. At December 31, 2011 and 2010, the net payable to Altisource was $1,965 and $1,433, respectively.


In addition to the revenues and expenses we recorded associated with the agreements discussed above, during 2011 and 2010 we sold certain equipment to Altisource that we had acquired from Litton and HomEq. Also, in 2010 we entered into an agreement to sublease from Altisource our principal executive office space in Atlanta, Georgia. See Note 2 and Note 10 for additional information regarding these transactions.


As disclosed in Note 11, Ocwen and Altisource each hold a 49% equity interest in Correspondent One. Correspondent One facilitates the purchase of conforming and government-guaranteed residential mortgages from approved mortgage originators and resells the mortgages to secondary market investors. As of December 31, 2011, Ocwen had invested $15,000 in Correspondent One.