Ocwen Financial has delayed filing its 2014 results and announced the sale of more servicing rights.
The embattled Atlanta servicer was initially expected to report fourth-quarter and full-year results on Monday. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday, Ocwen said that while it expects to file its 10-K by March 23, it can give "no assurance that it will be able to do so."
Ocwen said it is reviewing the ability of an affiliate, Home Loan Servicing Solutions, to fund new servicing advances, warning that a failure to do so could have "a material negative impact on its financial condition."
Home Loan Servicing, which is in the process of being sold to New Residential Investment, also said on Wednesday that it is delaying filing its annual report and fourth quarter earnings. It did not disclose why, but recent drops in interest rates have led to a new wave of prepayments, causing some servicers to write down the values of their servicing rights.
Ocwen also said its auditor is determining how it classifies a $150 million charge from a December settlement with New York's Department of Financial Services for alleged homeowner abuses.
Separately, Ocwen has agreed to sell $9.6 billion on servicing rights to a unit of Walter Investment, which owns Green Tree Servicing. That portfolio consists of roughly 55,000 loans backed by Freddie Mac, Ocwen said in a statement Wednesday. The deal is expected to close by April 30.
"We are pleased with the progress we are making on executing our plan," Ocwen Chief Executive Ron Faris said in the statement. "Over the next several months, we expect to generate proceeds of at least $650 million from sales and transfers of mortgage servicing rights"
The sale is consistent with Faris' pledge to streamline the company as it deals with increased regulatory scrutiny. In December, Faris said the company would sell some of its $1.7 trillion in agency servicing rights, backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and in March, Ocwen said it had signed a letter of intent to sell $45 billion of servicing rights on 277,000 home loans.
It did not identify the buyer at the time but Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the buyer is JPMorgan Chase, citing a person familiar with the transaction. That sale is expected to close in the second half of this year.
