Regulatory Requirements

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021


Note 19 – Regulatory Requirements

Our business is subject to extensive regulation and supervision by federal, state and local governmental authorities, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), HUD, the SEC and various state agencies that license and conduct examinations of our servicing and lending activities. In addition, we operate under a number of regulatory settlements that subject us to ongoing reporting and other obligations. From time to time, we also receive requests (including requests in the form of subpoenas and civil investigative demands) from federal, state and local agencies for records, documents and information relating to our servicing and lending activities. The GSEs (and their conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA)), Ginnie Mae, the United States Treasury Department, various investors, non-Agency securitization trustees and others also subject us to periodic reviews and audits.

We must comply with a large number of federal, state and local consumer protection and other laws and regulations, including, among others, the CARES Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the Homeowners Protection Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as individual state and local laws, and federal and local bankruptcy rules. These laws and regulations apply to all facets of our business, including, but not limited to, licensing, loan originations, consumer disclosures, default servicing and collections, foreclosure, filing of claims, registration of vacant or foreclosed properties, handling of escrow accounts, payment application, interest rate adjustments, assessment of fees, loss mitigation, use of credit reports, and safeguarding of non-public personally identifiable information about our customers. These complex requirements can and do change as laws and regulations are enacted, promulgated, amended, interpreted and enforced, and the requirements applicable to our business have been changing especially rapidly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the actions of legislative bodies and regulatory agencies relating to a particular matter or business practice may or may not be coordinated or consistent. The general trend among federal, state and local legislative bodies and regulatory agencies as well as state attorneys general has been toward increasing laws, regulations, investigative proceedings and enforcement actions with regard to residential real estate lenders and servicers.

In addition, a number of foreign laws and regulations apply to our operations outside of the U.S., including laws and regulations that govern licensing, privacy, employment, safety, taxes and insurance and laws and regulations that govern the creation, continuation and the winding up of companies as well as the relationships between shareholders, our corporate entities, the public and the government in these countries.

Our licensed entities are required to renew their licenses, typically on an annual basis, and to do so they must satisfy the license renewal requirements of each jurisdiction, which generally include financial requirements such as providing audited financial statements and satisfying minimum net worth requirements and non-financial requirements such as satisfactory completion of examinations relating to the licensee’s compliance with applicable laws and regulations. We are also subject to

seller/servicer obligations under agreements with the GSEs, HUD, FHA, VA and Ginnie Mae, including capital requirements related to tangible net worth, as defined by the applicable agency, an obligation to provide audited financial statements within 90 days of the applicable entity’s fiscal year end as well as extensive requirements regarding servicing, selling and other matters. We believe our licensed entities were in compliance with all of their minimum net worth requirements at March 31, 2021. Our non-Agency servicing agreements also contain requirements regarding servicing practices and other matters, and a failure to comply with these requirements could have a material adverse impact on our business. The most restrictive of the various net worth requirements for licensing and seller/servicer obligations referenced above is based on the UPB of assets serviced by PMC. Under the applicable formula, the required minimum net worth was $272.0 million at March 31, 2021. PMC’s net worth was $524.2 million at March 31, 2021. The most restrictive of the various liquidity requirements for licensing and seller/servicer obligations referenced above was $27.2 million at March 31, 2021. PMC’s liquid assets were $227.0 million at March 31, 2021.

We have faced and expect to continue to face heightened regulatory and public scrutiny as an organization and have entered into a number of significant settlements with federal and state regulators and state attorneys general that have imposed additional requirements on our business. Our failure to comply with our settlement obligations to our regulators or with applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations, licensing requirements and agency guidelines could lead to (i) administrative fines, penalties, sanctions or litigation, (ii) loss of our licenses and approvals to engage in our servicing and lending businesses, (iii) governmental investigations and enforcement actions, (iv) civil and criminal liability, including class action lawsuits and actions to recover incentive and other payments made by governmental entities, (v) breaches of covenants and representations under our servicing, debt or other agreements, (vi) additional costs to address these matters and comply with the terms of any resulting resolutions, (vii) suspension or termination of our approved agency seller/servicer status, (viii) inability to raise capital or otherwise fund our operations and (ix) inability to execute on our business strategy, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, reputation, results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.

New York Department of Financial Services (NY DFS). We operate pursuant to certain regulatory requirements with the NY DFS, including obligations arising under a consent order entered into in March 2017 (the NY Consent Order) and the terms of the NY DFS’ conditional approval in September 2018 of our acquisition of PHH. The conditional approval includes reporting obligations and record retention and other requirements relating to the transfer of loans collateralized by New York property (New York loans) onto our servicing system, the Financial Services, Inc. (Black Knight) LoanSphere MSP® servicing system (Black Knight MSP) and certain requirements with respect to the evaluation and supervision of management of both Ocwen and PMC. In addition, we were prohibited from boarding any additional loans onto the REALServicing system and we were required to transfer all New York loans off the REALServicing system by April 30, 2020. The conditional approval also restricts our ability to acquire MSRs with respect to New York loans, so that Ocwen may not increase its aggregate portfolio of New York loans serviced or subserviced by Ocwen by more than 2% per year. This restriction will remain in place until the NY DFS determines that all loans serviced on the REALServicing system have been successfully migrated to Black Knight MSP and that Ocwen has developed a satisfactory infrastructure to board sizable portfolios of MSRs. We transferred all loans onto Black Knight MSP in 2019 and no longer service any loans on the REALServicing system. We believe we have complied with all terms of the PHH acquisition conditional approval to date. We continue to work with the NY DFS to address matters they raise with us as well as to fulfill our commitments under the NY Consent Order and PHH acquisition conditional approval.

California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CA DFPI). In January 2015 and February 2017, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC (OLS) entered into consent orders with the CA DFPI (formerly known as the California Department of Business Oversight) relating to our alleged failure to produce certain information and documents during a routine licensing examination and relating to alleged servicing practices. We have completed all of our obligations under each of these consent orders. In October 2020, we entered into a consent order with the CA DFPI in order to resolve a legacy PHH examination finding and, in conjunction therewith, agreed to pay $62,000 (sixty-two thousand dollars) in penalties. We continue to work with the CA DFPI to address matters they raise with us as well as to fulfill our commitments under the consent order.