Ocwen Financial Corp., which relies heavily on its overseas workforce, has decided to shutter a pair of North Texas servicing offices, laying off almost 680 mortgage workers in the process, according to a recent filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.
The two offices slated for closure – and previously owned by Saxon Mortgage – are located in Irving, and Ft. Worth.
The layoffs are expected to begin May 28 and continue through the ensuing months.
The publicly traded Ocwen agreed to buy the Morgan Stanley-owned Saxon last fall. In total, it paid $60 million for $26.6 billion of MSRs.
Ocwen has been an active buyer of MSRs for the past two years – in particular nonconforming and legacy product. In general its strategy has been to buy servicing platforms and their MSRs, and then shift a large portion of the work to other facilities in the U.S. or overseas.
Last year Fitch Ratings downgraded its servicer rating on Ocwen, questioning its rapid expansion in servicing contracts and voicing doubts about its heavy use of offshore workers.
With the Saxon deal recently closed, Ocwen controls upwards of $140 billion in MSRs.
The layoffs were first reported by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
