Regulatory Requirements

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023


Note 18 – Regulatory Requirements

Our business is subject to extensive regulation and supervision by federal, state, local and foreign governmental authorities, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), HUD, the SEC and various state agencies that license our servicing and lending activities. Accordingly, we are regularly subject to examinations, inquiries and requests, including civil investigative demands and subpoenas. The GSEs and their conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (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, handling of unclaimed property, safeguarding of non-public personally identifiable information about our customers, and the ability of our employees to work remotely. These complex requirements can and do change as laws and regulations are enacted, promulgated, amended, interpreted and enforced. 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, which could increase the possibility of adverse regulatory action against us.

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, payroll and other 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 foreign subsidiaries are subject to inquiries and examinations from foreign governmental regulators in the countries in which we operate outside of the U.S.

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, liquidity requirements, 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. PMC’s minimum financial eligibility requirements for GSE seller/servicers and Ginnie Mae issuers were updated by the GSEs and Ginnie Mae effective September 30, 2023, including the following:


	GSEs	Ginnie Mae
Minimum tangible net worth	•$2.5 million plus 0.35% of the Ginnie Mae servicing portfolio, plus 0.25% of the GSE and other single family servicing portfolios	•$2.5 million plus 0.35% of the Ginnie Mae total effective single-family outstanding obligations, as defined, plus 0.25% of the GSE and other servicing portfolios, and •$5.0 million plus 1.0% of the Ginnie Mae total effective HMBS outstanding obligations, as defined
Minimum liquidity	•0.15%* of the outstanding Ginnie Mae single-family servicing UPB, plus •0.09%* of the outstanding GSE single-family servicing UPB with scheduled/scheduled or scheduled/actual remittance types, plus •0.055%* of the outstanding GSE single-family servicing UPB, with actual/actual remittance types, plus •0.035% of the outstanding other servicing UPB (*) includes a 0.05% and 0.02% supplemental liquidity requirements for Ginnie Mae and GSEs, respectively due to PMC status as a large non-depository seller/servicer	•0.10% of the outstanding Ginnie Mae single-family servicing UPB plus •0.07% of the outstanding GSE single-family servicing UPB, if PMC remits the principal or interest, or both, as scheduled, regardless of whether principal or interest has been collected from the borrower, plus •0.035% of the outstanding GSE single-family servicing UPB, if PMC remits the principal and interest only as actually collected from the borrower and the outstanding non-Agency single-family servicing UPB, and •20% of minimum net worth required for HMBS issuer (defined above)

We believe our licensed entities were in compliance with all of their minimum net worth requirements at September 30, 2023. 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 and liquidity requirements for licensing and seller/servicer obligations referenced above are mostly based on the UPB of assets serviced by PMC. Under the applicable formula, the required minimum net worth was $445.7 million at September 30, 2023. PMC’s adjusted net worth was $567.0 million at September 30, 2023. The most restrictive of the various liquidity requirements for licensing and seller/servicer obligations referenced above pertains to PMC and the required minimum liquidity was $106.3 million at September 30, 2023. PMC’s liquid assets were $178.0 million at September 30, 2023.

Ginnie Mae announced a new risk-based capital ratio effective on December 31, 2024 for Ginnie Mae issuers. PMC would not be in compliance with the upcoming risk-based capital requirements if they were in effect as of September 30, 2023. We are currently evaluating the potential impacts of Ginnie Mae’s risk-based capital requirements, the costs and benefits of achieving compliance, and possible courses of action involving external investor solutions, structural solutions or exiting Ginnie Mae forward originations and owned servicing activities. If we are unable to identify and execute a cost-effective solution that allows us to continue these businesses and are unable to replace the lost income from these activities, or if we misjudge the magnitude of the costs and benefits and their impacts on our business, our financial results could be negatively impacted. As of September 30, 2023, our forward owned servicing portfolio included government-insured loans with a UPB of $16.6 billion, 8% of our total forward owned MSRs or 6% of our total UPB serviced and subserviced.

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 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 Ocwen legacy 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 have not serviced any loans on the REALServicing system since then. 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. We believe we have complied with all terms of the PHH acquisition conditional approval and the NY Consent Order to date. 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. We also entered into a consent order in February 2023 to resolve a legacy OLS matter with the CA DFPI primarily addressing OLS’s post-boarding process related to loan payment terms. The Consent Order provides for a $2.5 million settlement with the CA DFPI with the waiver of certain late fees, a loss mitigation campaign, and other reliefs. The settlement was fully accrued at December 31, 2022 and paid in March 2023.