Mr.
Cooper
Group
unveiled
strong
financial
results
during
the
first
quarter
of
2024,
buoyed
in
part
by
a
strong
servicing
and
subservicing
business.
The
firm
reported
$450
million
in
revenue
and
$181
million
in
net
income
during
the
first
three
months
of
the
year. 

Additionally,
its
return
on
tangible
common
equity
rose
to
14.5%
in
Q1
2024,
up
from

12.5%
in
the
fourth
quarter
of
2023.

“The
company
has
started
the
year
with
excellent
momentum,
including
return
on
tangible
common
equity
rising
to
14.5%,”
Chairman
and
CEO
Jay
Bray
said
in
a
statement.
“Thanks
to
our
strategic
emphasis
on
technology,
including
years
of
investment
in
AI
and
the
cloud,
Mr.
Cooper
is
well
positioned
to
provide
our
customers
with
world-class
service,
operate
as
a
trusted
counterparty
for
our
industry
stakeholders,
and
grow
and
sustain
investor
returns.”

During
a
call
with
analysts
on
Wednesday
morning,
Bray
touted
the
merits
of

Sagent’s
new
servicing
software
platform,


Dara.
The
software
boasts
a
single
real-time
database
and
user
experience
across
the
entire
core,
consumer
and
default
servicing
life
cycle,
according
to
the
company. 

“In
order
to
implement
AI,
you
need
a
state-of-the-art
platform,”
Bray
told
analysts
on
Wednesday.
“We
embraced
the
cloud
much
earlier
than
our
peers.
In
fact,
we
built
our
servicing
platform
to
be
cloud-native
from
the
start.”

Mr.
Cooper
and
Sagent
signed
a

multiyear
agreement
in
February
2022.
Mr.
Cooper
sold
certain
intellectual
property
rights
for
its
cloud-based
technology
platform
to
Sagent
and
received
a
minority
equity
stake
in
the
fintech
company.

Per
the
terms
of
the
contract,
Sagent
was
tasked
with
integrating
Mr.
Cooper’s
consumer-first
platform
into
a
cloud-native
core,
then
licensing
the
resulting
cloud-based
platform
to
banks
and
independent
mortgage
companies.

Bray
also
reintroduced

Pyro,
Mr.
Cooper’s
patented
mortgage-centric
AI
platform
that
the
company
has
been
developing
since
2019
in
partnership
with

Google.
The
platform
harnesses
the
power
of
machine
learning
and
Google
Cloud
Document
AI
capabilities
to
identify
and
sort
thousands
of
important
documents. 

“By
picking
the
right
partner
for
cloud
and
technology,
we
were
able
to
reallocate
resources
to
other
strategically
important
projects,
including
building
proprietary
tools
for
customer
retention,
loan
modification
and
onboarding
portfolios,”
Bray
said.
“We’ve
also
allocated
resources
to
further
digitize
our
processes
in
origination
and
servicing.”

Mr.
Cooper
funded
11,599
loans
in
the
first
quarter,
totaling
approximately
$2.9
billion
in
unpaid
principal
balance
(UPB).
This
included
$1.4
billion
in
direct-to-consumer
originations
and
$1.5
billion
in
correspondent
volume.
On
a
quarterly
basis,
funded
volume
increased
8%,
while
pull-through
adjusted
volume
increased
16%
to
$3
billion.
Total
originations
generated
an
operating
income
of
$32
million.

Meanwhile,
the
company’s
servicing
portfolio
ended
the
quarter
at
$1.136
trillion,
with
UPB
of
$631
billion
in
owned
mortgage
servicing
rights
(MSRs)
and
$505
billion
in
subservicing.
Servicing
generated
pretax
operating
income,
excluding
other
mark-to-market,
of
$273
million
in
Q1
2024.

“This
environment
is
playing
to
the
strengths
of
our
balanced
business
model,
as
we
are
enjoying
strong
momentum
with
subservicing
clients
and
seeing
attractive
opportunities
to
acquire
MSRs,
while
our
originations
team
has
been
very
nimble
in
helping
customers
save
money
and
access
the
equity
they’ve
built
up
in
their
homes,”
Mr.
Cooper
President
Mike
Weinbach
said
in
a
statement.

On
Tuesday,
Mr.
Cooper
Group
named
former


Wells
Fargo
Home
Lending
executive
Ranjit
Bhattacharjee
and
former

Piper
Sandler
analyst
Kevin
Barker
to
its
leadership
team. 

Bhattacharjee
will
officially
join
Mr.
Cooper
on
May
6
as
its
executive
vice
president
and
chief
investment
officer.
He
will
be
responsible
for
oversight
of
capital
markets
and

correspondent
lending,
reporting
directly
to
chairman
and
CEO
Jay
Bray.
Barker’s
hiring
for
the
role
of
senior
vice
president
of
corporate
finance
is
effective
immediately.

Mr.
Cooper
Group
also
acquired

Home
Point
Capital
and

Roosevelt
Management
Co.
in
2023
while
managing
the
fallout
from
a
cyberattack
late
last
year.

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