\u201cHaving worked closely with the Cenlar team, we have reached an agreement that represents a compelling value proposition for our stockholders, Cenlar\u2019s institutional clients and their clients\u2019 borrowers, as well as the many talented professionals joining Pennymac.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spector said that upon completion of the acquisition, Pennymac will become the second-largest U.S. mortgage servicer and one of the largest subservicers in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeveraging industry-leading SSE technology, this further strengthens Pennymac\u2019s position as a partner of choice for institutional subservicing and is expected to drive the growth of capital-light, fee-based revenue streams at significant scale,\u201d Spector added. \u201cWe operate a best-in-class platform with superior operational performance and efficiency. With this transaction, we expect to realize powerful synergies that further reinforce our standing as the market\u2019s most technologically advanced servicer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur team at Cenlar has been dedicated to building the nation\u2019s leading subservicing organization, grounded in a deep commitment to our clients,\u201d said David Schneider<\/a>, president and CEO at Cenlar. \u201cBy combining Cenlar\u2019s market-leading expertise with a top lender and servicer like Pennymac, we are forming the strongest subservicing platform in the industry. <\/p>\n \u201cI am incredibly proud of what the Cenlar team has achieved and look forward to this next chapter as we collectively deliver superior scale, technology and care to the millions of homeowners we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Concurrent with closing, Cenlar will surrender its bank charter. Pennymac will acquire Cenlar\u2019s subservicing business as a nonbank entity focused exclusively on mortgage subservicing. It will methodically transition about 100 institutional clients while delivering enhanced levels of customer service to their borrowers.<\/p>\n Santander US Capital Markets LLC is acting as the exclusive financial adviser to Pennymac and Goodwin Procter LLP is acting as its legal counsel.<\/p>\n Houlihan Lokey Capital Inc. is acting as financial adviser to Cenlar and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is acting as its legal counsel.<\/p>\n Kevin Ryan<\/a>, Pennymac\u2019s chief strategy officer, said in an exclusive interview with HousingWire that the deal has been in the works for the past nine months and was \u201cconsistent with the company\u2019s strategic plan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve said that we really wanted to grow in the subservicing business. And there are a couple of reasons for that,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIt\u2019s fee income, which will diversify our revenue sources and is less capital-intensive than other businesses we\u2019re in. \u2026 We feel like we have made really good progress in being a servicer, treating the customers right, building great technology around servicing. And so, wouldn\u2019t it be great if we could grow fee income but also put that servicing technology<\/a> in the hands of more clients?\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan said that Cenlar\u2019s sophisticated, institutional customer base was attractive to the company and the value the deal would bring to its shareholders. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is actually the first M&A deal in the history of Pennymac, so we wanted it to be meaningful and really supercharge a strategic objective of ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ryan also confirmed that Pennymac will onboard Cenlar\u2019s employees as soon as the deal closes in the second half of this year, and it will set up separate Pennymac branches at Cenlar\u2019s current physical locations. <\/p>\n \u201cThey will become Pennymac employees and drive our subservicing business, because our subservicing business is about to get materially bigger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the leaders of the industry going forward will have relatively large portfolios and will have operational excellence, and we feel very well positioned to be there. My sense is the industry will continue to consolidate around those who can bring really strong technological expertise and discipline and workflows to these customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Servicing shakeup<\/p>\n Cenlar was the second-largest subservicing player in the U.S. at the end of September, with a $745 billion book, according to Inside Mortgage Finance (IMF). Pennymac said that Cenlar posted $459 million in subservicing revenue in 2025.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Pennymac did not have a significant presence in the segment, ranking as the 23rd-largest U.S. subservicer, IMF data shows. But Pennymac reported an owned servicing portfolio of $697.7 billion at the end of 2025, up about 5% year over year and good for No. 4 nationally.<\/p>\n Servicing and subservicing drew renewed attention in March 2025 when Rocket Companies<\/a> announced a $9.4 billion<\/a> deal to acquire Mr. Cooper Group<\/a>, the largest servicer in the country.<\/p>\n Since then, competitors have been recalibrating their positions. United Wholesale Mortgage<\/a> (UWM) has already opted<\/a> to move its portfolio away from Mr. Cooper. But part of it remains with Cenlar. UWM said loans currently subserviced by Cenlar will transition by the end of 2026, except those UWM elects not to retain, according to its third-quarter 2025 earnings call<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the Pennymac acquisition was announced, a UWM spokesperson issued a statement to HousingWire in which they referred to a partnership<\/a> with Bilt, which was launched last year in the wake of UWM\u2019s move to bring servicing in house.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already started boarding new loans with UWM as well as transitioning loans from our sub-servicers and are preparing for our acquisition<\/a> of TWO Harbors\/Roundpoint. Cenlar being acquired by PennyMac has no impact on UWM, our brokers or borrowers,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n Another big move in the space was Bayview Asset Management\u2018s purchase<\/a> of Guild Mortgage.<\/p>\n HousingWire reported<\/a> in May 2025 that Cenlar was \u201cin talks to sell,\u201d but the company dismissed the claims as rumors. The following month, the company announced plans to shutter its facility<\/a> in O\u2019Fallon, Missouri, resulting in the termination of 93 employees.<\/p>\n Fl\u00e1via Furlan Nunes contributed reporting to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHaving worked closely with the Cenlar team, we have reached an agreement that represents a compelling value proposition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,16752,14007,216156,216157],"class_list":{"0":"post-464064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-hwmember","10":"tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","11":"tag-mortgage-servicing","12":"tag-pennymac"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}