Compliance costs boost loan outsourcing

[BOSTON] As banks lose money on mortgages and retreat from the business, PHH Corp, the biggest US outsourcer of home loans, is rushing to cash in.

PHH processes and originates mortgages on behalf of small banks and some of the world's largest financial firms, including Morgan Stanley and HSBC Holdings plc. PHH chief executive officer Glen Messina is so convinced he can make money where others can't that in July he sold the company's cash-producing fleet management unit and plans to plough the proceeds into mortgages.

Lenders are backing away from home loans as an array of new regulations in the aftermath of the housing crash push up compliance costs. Banks lost an average US$194 a mortgage in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The l…