MetLife Inc. has announced an agreement to sell MetLife Bank NA's approximately $70 billion mortgage servicing portfolio to JPMorganChase Bank, N.A. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The $70 billion servicing portfolio will increase Chase's $1.1 trillion servicing business by more than five percent.
"Since that time, MetLife has entered into agreements to sell MetLife Bank's deposit business to GE Capital, sold the bank's warehouse finance business to EverBank, sold the bank's reverse mortgage servicing rights to Nationstar, and ceased writing residential mortgages," said Jim Rose, MetLife Bank president.
Given MetLife's strategic focus as a global insurance and employee benefits leader, the company decided in 2011 that a bank holding company structure was no longer appropriate.
"The acquisition of this high-quality portfolio reflects our strategy to strengthen and grow our Servicing business," said Eric Schuppenhauer, head of mortgage servicing at Chase. "We will be able to provide our full range of products and services to an additional 350,000 individuals and families. We expect that many of these customers will take advantage of historically low interest rates by refinancing."
MetLife's entire retail banking business, including mortgages, represented less than two percent of MetLife's 2011 operating earnings. In a regulatory filing on Oct. 24, MetLife announced it was exploring a sale of its mortgage servicing portfolio and in connection with that decision, began reporting MetLife Bank's forward mortgage servicing assets and operations as divested businesses.
