Rocket Mortgage has announced a big new partnership, entering into a subservicing agreement with Annaly Capital Management, the country’s largest residential mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT).
Rocket will handle all servicing and retention activities for a portion of the mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) held by Annaly beginning as early as December. That could add up, considering Annaly claims almost $75 billion in assets invested between its Agency MBS, Residential Credit and MSR strategies. As of June 30, the REIT’s MSR portfolio includes servicing for roughly 608,000 loans representing approximately $2.8 billion in market value and $192 billion in unpaid principal balances.
Rocket’s servicing portfolio is vast in its own right, encompassing 2.6 million loans with an unpaid principal balance of some $534.6 billion as of the end of June. Rocket Mortgage has recently earned accolades for its servicer operation, earning the highest marks among mortgage companies in J.D. Power’s latest U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study. This year marked the 10th time that Detroit-based Rocket topped J.D. Power’s client satisfaction rankings in mortgage servicing.
Additionally, both Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna and chief financial officer Brian Brown touted the firm’s recapture rate — which currently stands at north of 80%, more than three times the industry average — during its second-quarter earnings call in August.
“Rocket is committed to the entire homeownership experience from budgeting and credit building, to home search, financing and servicing,” said Bill Banfield, chief business officer at Rocket Companies. “We truly believe in building relationships with our clients that last a lifetime – whether through new mortgages or servicing loans.”
“Annaly is pleased to enhance its mortgage servicing rights platform with our new relationship with Rocket,” said Steve Campbell, president and COO of Annaly. “We are proud to have constructed one of the most durable and high-quality portfolios of MSR in the market and this partnership will allow us to benefit from Rocket’s industry-leading servicing capabilities and retention rates. We are excited to have access to the best-in-class experience that Rocket is known for, which continues to improve given their ongoing investments in technology.”
