Ocwen: SEC is Probing Us Again

Ocwen Financial Corporation has used its 10-K filing to announce that it is under a federal probe. The new probe, conducted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), follows a January $2 million settlement by Ocwen to settle an SEC investigation.

“On Feb. 10, 2015, we received a letter from the Staff [of the SEC] informing us that it was conducting an investigation relating to the use of collection agents by mortgage loan servicers,” said the company in its filing. “The letter requested that we voluntarily produce documents and information. We believe that the February 10, 2015 letter was also sent to other companies in the industry. On Feb. 11, 2016, we received a letter from the Staff informing us that it was conducting an investigation relating to fees and expenses charged in connection with liquidated loans and REO properties held in non-agency RMBS trusts. The letter requested that we voluntarily produce documents and information. We are cooperating with the Staff on these matters.”

The SEC made no public announcement of its new probe of Ocwen, which also reported a net loss of $224.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015 and a full-year net loss for 2015 of $246.7 million.

“We continue to make progress in resolving legacy issues,” said Ron Faris, president and CEO of Ocwen. “We also continue to lower our corporate debt, ending the year with a corporate debt to equity ratio of under 0.9-to-1. We are also focused on continuous improvement in operational and service excellence, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion. We have made good progress on our cost improvement initiative announced last year, and we are committed to making further progress in this area, while continuing to focus on the borrower experience.”