Ocwen to rebrand as Onity

Ocwen Financial Group plans to rebrand its parent company to Onity Group, and its operating units to Onity Mortgage later this year.

Shareholders must first approve the name change, with the vote taking place at its annual meeting on May 28.

"We are very excited about rebranding to Onity as it demonstrates our extensive transformation into a balanced and diversified mortgage company and the confidence we have in our business, our capabilities and our team," Glen Messina, chair, president and CEO of Ocwen said in a press release.

Over the past five years, he continued, Ocwen has grown its mortgage servicing and subservicing portfolios, built a scalable servicing platform, added multi-channel originations and asset management capabilities, and established multiple capital partner relationships to enable capital-light servicing growth.

But some of those changes, especially in the servicing platform, were a result of legal and regulatory actions. Ultimately a settlement forced Ocwen to switch to Black Knight's MSP.

As part of that change, it purchased the company Messina formerly headed up, PHH in 2018.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with a group of 30 state regulators and/or attorneys general, sued Ocwen for servicing violations in 2017. All but the CFPB settled the case and a federal judge in Florida dismissed the bureau's remaining complaint last year.

But in February the CFPB filed an amicus brief in a pay-to-play lawsuit.

The new name, Ocwen explained, reflects the capabilities of a hard-working team with a can-do attitude and problem-solving culture.

Specifically, the word Onity contains the phrase "on it," which conveys action and the promise of dependability, performance and support.

"We understand what our customers want and the important role we have in delivering on their needs," Messina said. "We believe our new brand genuinely represents how we operate and our focus on delivering results consistent with what our customers expect from us."

If approved, Ocwen will become Onity Group and start trading under the "ONIT" ticker symbol in June. For the time being, PHH Mortgage and Liberty Reverse Mortgage will continue to use their current names, but will be rebranded with Onity at an undermined later date.

In separate Ocwen news, it announced that former NMI Holdings CEO Claudia Merkle has joined its board of directors and Phyllis Caldwell, who was Ocwen's chairman at the time of the PHH deal, will be leaving as of the annual meeting.