Mr. Cooper Group Inc., formerly WMI Holdings Corporation., is a home loan servicer headquartered in the Dallas, Texas, area. Mr. Cooper Group specializes in residential mortgages, mortgage refinancing, home loans, and home loan refinancing[1] It is one of the largest mortgage servicers in the United States with a servicing portfolio of approximately $937 billion and more than 4.3 million customers.[2]

Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
Mr. Cooper
FormerlyWMI Holdings Corporation, Nationstar Holdings
Company typePublic
IndustryMortgage Lending
Founded1889; 135 years ago (1889)
Headquarters,
U.S.
Area served
United States
Key people
Jay Bray (chairman and CEO)
ProductsConventional Loans
FHA Loans
FHA Streamline Loans
VA Loans
VA IRRRL
RevenueUS$3.318 billion (2021)
US$898 million (2021)
US$1.4 billion (2021)
Total assetsUS$14.2 billion (2021)
Number of employees
8,200 (2021)
Subsidiaries
Websitemrcooper.com

History

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WMI Holdings Corporation

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WMI Holdings Corporation was incorporated as the Washington National Building Loan and Investment Association on September 25, 1889, after the Great Seattle Fire destroyed 120 acres (49 ha) of the central business district of Seattle. The newly formed company made its first home mortgage loan on the West Coast on February 10, 1890. It changed its name to Washington Savings and Loan Association on June 25, 1908. By September 12, 1917, it was operating under the name Washington Mutual Savings Bank.[3]

In mid 2008 WaMu suffered a massive run where customers pulled out $16.7 billion in deposits in a ten-day span. On the night of September 25th the Office of Thrift Supervision seized WaMu Bank and placed it into the receivership of the FDIC. The FDIC then sold most of WaMu Bank's assets, including the branch network.[4]

On September 26, 2008, WaMu, Inc., and its remaining subsidiary, WMI Investment Corp., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and after seven plans to reorganize the company finally emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy the following month as WMI Holdings Corporation.[5] In 2018 WMI Holdings Corporation merged with Nationstar to form Mr. Cooper.[6]

Nationstar

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Nationstar was founded in Denver, Colorado, in 1994 as Nova Credit Corporation. In 1997, the company moved to Dallas, Texas, where home-builder Centex Homes established Nova Credit Corporation as their in-house lender for new construction and changed the company name to Centex Credit Corporation. In 2001, Centex Credit Corporation was merged into Centex Home Equity Company, and it operated as the subprime mortgage originator and servicer for Centex until 2005.

In 2005, the decision was made to withdraw Centex Homes from non-home-building businesses, including the mortgage business. Fortress Investment Group acquired Centex Home Equity and renamed it Nationstar Mortgage in 2006.[7][8]

In March 2012, Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, Inc. went public with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.[9]

Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, is the consumer-facing mortgage lender and servicer that operates under the service mark "Mr. Cooper".[10] In August 2017, Nationstar Mortgages, LLC, announced it was changing its name to Mr. Cooper after releasing its worst financial report to date.[11] The company stated that the name change was meant to "personalize the mortgage experience".[12] In 2018 Nationstar and WMI Holdings Corporation (WMIH), the corporate successor to the defunct Washington Mutual, merged. As a result Nationstar was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and WMIH changed its name to Mr. Cooper Group.[13]

Mr. Cooper Group

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In 2020, Mr. Cooper originated over 146,000 mortgages with a total value of over $36 billion.[14]

Controversies

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In 2018, Mr. Cooper paid out millions of dollars in settlements in New York and California due to various violations of state banking laws.[15]

In 2020, Mr. Cooper agreed to a $91 million settlement with the CFPB, all 50 states, and three U.S. territories, for mishandling foreclosures and borrowers' payments.[16] More than $74 million of the settlement was directed back to consumers whose homes were foreclosed on while waiting for approval of their loan modifications and consumers whose monthly payments were increased without notice or consent.[16]

On October 31, 2023, Mr. Cooper was the subject of a cyber-attack which forced the company to suspend its online services for four days, from November 1 to November 5, 2023.[17] The company promised to ensure that customers will not be assessed late fees, penalties, or hits to their credit score due to the service outage.[18] On November 9, 2023, Mr. Cooper confirmed that customer data was compromised in the breach, but did not disclose to what extent.[19] On December 15, 2023, Mr. Cooper confirmed in a regulatory notice with the state of Maine that 14,690,284 customers' data was exposed, including names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and bank account numbers.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Mr Cooper Group Inc: Overview". GlobalData. August 30, 2024. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  2. ^ Revell, Eric (2023-11-08). "Cyberattack of major mortgage servicer leaves customers without online payment option". FOXBusiness. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  3. ^ "Washington Mutual (WaMu)". www.historylink.org. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  4. ^ Dash, Eric; Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2008-09-25). "Government Seizes WaMu and Sells Some Assets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  5. ^ "Washington Mutual Bank (Including its subsidiary Washington Mutual Bank FSB) | FDIC". www.fdic.gov. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  6. ^ Lane, Ben. "Meet the Mr. Cooper Group: Nationstar completes merger with Washington Mutual parent WMIH". HousingWire. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  7. ^ "MortgageDaily.com: Subprime Lender Changes Hands -- Fortress Investment to acquire Centex Home Equity". Archived from the original on 2021-06-04. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  8. ^ "Centex Home Equity to Become Nationstar Mortgage LLC". Archived from the original on February 21, 2013.
  9. ^ "Overview".
  10. ^ "Nationstar Mortgage LLC". NMLS Consumer Access. Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. 9 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  11. ^ "Nationstar posts net loss of $20 million, but the news is better than it seems". 3 August 2017.
  12. ^ "It's official: Nationstar will become Mr. Cooper in August 2017". 2 May 2017.
  13. ^ Lane, Ben (2018-08-01). "Meet the Mr. Cooper Group: Nationstar completes merger with Washington Mutual parent WMIH". HousingWire. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  14. ^ "Nationstar Mortgage (Mr. Cooper)". Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  15. ^ "Nationstar (aka Mr. Cooper) reaches $17 million mortgage settlement with NYDFS". 11 April 2018.
  16. ^ a b Michelle Singletary (2020-12-08). "Nationstar Mortgage agrees to a $91 million settlement for mishandling foreclosures and borrowers' payments". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.
  17. ^ Griffin, Keith (5 November 2023). "Mr. Cooper Locked Down By Cyber Attack". National Mortgage Professional. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  18. ^ Cowley, Stacy (7 November 2023). "Cyberattack Disrupts Mortgage Payments for Millions of Mr. Cooper Customers". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  19. ^ Feuer, Will (9 November 2023). "Mr Cooper Says Customer Data Was Exposed in Cyberattack". MarketWatch. Dow Jones Newswires. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  20. ^ Reed, Michelle (15 December 2023). "Data Breach Notifications". Office of the Maine Attorney General. Retrieved 2023-12-30.