Chase buying $45B in mortgage loan service rights

NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase says it will buy $45 billion in mortgage-servicing right from Ocwen Financial as the subprime mortgage servicer continues to sell off assets.

Chase said the deal will give it the rights to 266,000 high-quality mortgage loans from Fannie Mae. Ocwen announced in March that it would sell the loans.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is one of the largest mortgage service companies in the U.S. In 2013 the company agreed to provide $2.1 billion in relief to struggling homeowners, mostly by reducing their loan balances, as part of
a settlement of a federal investigation into foreclosure abuses..

More recently it reached additional settlements with regulators in New York and California.

Investigations identified wrongful foreclosures, poorly documented procedures, missing paperwork and other problems.

The company has announced a series of deals since then.

Including the most recent deal, Ocwen has agreed to sell almost $90 billion in mortgage servicing rights to four buyers this year.

The Atlanta-based company said it wanted to improve its liquidity and reduce risk.