Origination is the sizzle. 🕶️ Servicing is the steak. 🥩

And the mortgage servicing business is consolidating faster than at any point in modern history. In the last 12 months alone, the entire shape of the US mortgage servicing market changed.

✔️ Rocket closed its $14.2B acquisition of Mr. Cooper last October, putting $2.1 trillion of UPB and roughly 10 million homeowners under a single roof.
✔️Bayview took Guild Mortgage private in November, pairing it with Lakeview's $738B servicing book.
✔️Onity sold its reverse mortgage portfolio to Finance of America in Q1.
✔️PennyMac announced its acquisition of Cenlar's $740B subservicing business in February, which makes PennyMac a $1.4 trillion servicer when it closes.
✔️Freedom Mortgage acquired Seneca Mortgage Servicing in March to bolt on MSR platform capacity.
✔️UWM and CrossCountry have been in a public bidding war for Two Harbors since March, with the shareholder vote on May 19.
✔️Carrington announced its acquisition of Valon Mortgage yesterday, adding 800,000 loans plus a new core servicing platform.

That is roughly $1.5 trillion of servicing in motion in twelve months, and we are not done.

Lets look at who is still independent for clues on the next acquisition ...

▪️Onity / PHH is now leaner, simplified, and publicly traded at a distressed valuation.
▪️Flagstar Financial (the NYCB rebrand) is a regional bank under pressure with a mortgage division that could be carved out tomorrow.
▪️The independent subservicers (ServiceMac under First American, Servbank, Dovenmuehle) are sitting in corporate parents that have no strategic reason to keep them. Any of those names could move in the next 12 months.
▪️LoanDepot's stock price is flailing, they've been a rumored acquisition target for months, and they own about $120B in servicing.

For lenders, this is no longer a "watch the M&A pages" story. It is a strategic question that hits your P&L directly. If your servicing strategy is to sell your MSRs to whoever has the highest bid, you need to understand who that bid is coming from and what they intend to do with your customer.

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The speaker lineup for the 2026 OMBA Annual Conference just got significantly stronger. We are thrilled to welcome two more powerhouse voices to Columbus this June ...

Julie May of FICO
Jodi Hall of The Mortgage Collaborative

If you understand where this industry is headed, you understand why both matter right now.

Julie May sits at the center of one of the biggest structural shifts the mortgage industry has seen in years: the future of credit scoring, borrower eligibility, and the operational ripple effects coming from the VantageScore/FICO landscape.

Every lender in America is trying to figure out what the next 24 months look like operationally, strategically, and competitively. Julie is one of the people shaping that conversation.

Then there’s Jodi Hall.

If you have spent any time around mortgage technology, AI, digital transformation, servicing strategy, lender collaboration, or where the industry is actually going next, you already know the impact she has had. Jodi built The Mortgage Collaborative into one of the most influential lender networks in the country and has become one of the sharpest strategic voices in housing finance.

These two join Bill Cosgrove (Union Home Mortgage Corp. Home Mortgage CEO, only person to chair both OMBA and the national MBA), Robert Broeksmit (President & CEO of the National MBA), Steve Richman (legendary industry speaker), Maurice Clarett (Ohio State champion, entrepreneur, motivational force), Ohio State Senator Bill Blessing, and the fabulous Melanie Coulton, CMB®, AMP to talk about national advocacy and the CMB designation.

Eight keynotes (more coming). Twenty-one breakout sessions. Tech Demo Showcase. Hallway convos. Networking receptions. Lots of great food. A who's who of the top names nationally in the mortgage industry.

70+ organizations already locked in. 22 sponsors. 300+ attendees expected. This will be the biggest and most well-attended conference OMBA's 59-year history.

Don't be the person watching this event play out online in mid-June wishing you were there.

Hotel block at $169/night closes May 25. Conference is June 14-16, Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris. The reg fee is also dirt cheap!. Details and reg can BE FOUND HERE!

Mat brought a peashooter. Ron brought a Tomahawk cruise missile loaded with $3.4 billion in committed financing, painted with the words "All Cash" on the side, fired from a destroyer named USS Citi, and currently mid-flight toward Pontiac.

CrossCountry just raised its Two Harbors bid to $12.00 per share. All cash. Signed merger agreement. Unanimous board recommendation. 35 of 53 regulatory approvals already cleared. Closing Q3 2026.

Ron didn't even need to do this. CCM was already winning. The $11.30 cash deal had a unanimous board, signed contract, committed financing, and a regulatory runway more than halfway done. UWM's $12 "counter" was non-binding, paid in UWMC stock at a 2.33 ratio that backed into $7.88 per share at Wednesday's close, with no signed agreement, no financing disclosure, and no board recommendation. That fight was already over.

CCM raised the price anyway. Why? Style points. Closing the door on every shareholder who might have flirted with UWM's headline number. Burning the bridge while UWM was still standing on it.

For UWM, the math from here is brutal. Lose the May 19 vote (which is now effectively a formality), and the consolation prize is a company carrying $5.09 billion in non-funding debt, $424 million in cash (down from $503M last quarter), a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18 (up from 1.93 a year ago), and a $229.5B servicing portfolio that just got lapped by a private retail lender that didn't exist as a servicer 90 days ago. Q1 origination was up 39% to $44.9B, but net income came in at $170M on $901M in revenue, gain margins are compressing, and the in-house servicing buildout won't catch RoundPoint+Sagent for the better part of a decade.

Read the rest of this post here …

Stratmor: Top 50 servicers hold $9.3T in owned servicing, nonbanks at 55% and growing

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May 14-17 - PGA Championship (Aronimink Golf Club)

May 16 - Preakness Stakes (Laurel Park, Md.)

May 17-20 - MBA Secondary and Capital Markets Conference (Marriott Marquis, NYC)

May 25 - Memorial Day (markets closed)

May 31 - Indy 500 (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)

JUNE 2026

Jun 3 - Jobs Report (May)

Jun 5 - Belmont Stakes (Saratoga Race Course) -- Triple Crown on the line

Jun 11 - FIFA World Cup kicks off (USA, Canada, Mexico -- 48 teams)

Jun 14-16 - Ohio MBA Annual Conference (Columbus OH)

Jun 15 - Father's Day

Jun 16-17 - FOMC Meeting (rate decision, press conference)

Jun 18-21 - US Open Golf (Shinnecock Hills)

Jun 19 - Juneteenth (federal holiday, markets closed)

Jun 22 - NBA Draft (approx.)

Jun 29 - Wimbledon begins

“My father taught me many things here - he taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” - Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part II (1974)

Until the next one,
Swerb
[email protected]