Bob Sullivan, co-chair of the firm’s Finance Group and a speaker at the upcoming Servicing Symposium, provides an overview of his upcoming session.
The Symposium starts off with a session examining the business of servicing — what kind of macro issues are we seeing in the industry?
Right now we’re seeing pressures on servicers from ever-increasing regulatory requirements, increased reporting and third-party obligations, fixed fees and historically low interest rates.
Are more servicers exiting the business, and why is it so difficult for new entrants?
Master servicing has become a huge people- and capital-intensive business, making it hard to enter as the cost of maintaining the business requires a great deal of volume.
This year’s agenda has a greater focus on origination than prior years — is the volume of originations creating more or less opportunity for servicers?
With increased origination, more securitization and more servicing to be done, servicers are seeing more opportunities.
How are special servicers adapting?
They’re retraining existing staff to work on due diligence for new deals, chasing different product lines that fall in line with a special servicing skillset.