WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., March 23, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE:OCN) Vice President and Chief Risk Officer William E. Rinehart testified before the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, March 21, 2006.
The Committee is examining a number of issues that affect American cities. Yesterday's hearing focused on the subprime mortgage industry, payday lending and the Community Reinvestment Act. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, invited Mr. Rinehart to testify about Ocwen's innovative approaches in helping its subprime mortgage servicing customers avoid foreclosure.
Mr. Rinehart stated, "Foreclosure is clearly a lose/lose/lose proposition for all parties. In the vast majority of cases, finding a way to keep a customer in their home and continuing to pay their mortgage is the best economic proposition for the customer, the servicer and the investor."
Rinehart discussed Ocwen's innovative program currently in place with the National Training and Information Center (NTIC) in Chicago, Ill. and its nine affiliates including the East Side Organizing Project (ESOP) in Cleveland, Ohio. Through this program, now in its second year, Ocwen partners with these non-profit housing groups to reach out to severely delinquent customers and assist them in a finding an alternative to foreclosure.
Rinehart continued, "Ocwen is proud of our industry-leading loss mitigation efforts. During 2006 we were able to resolve the loans of more than 80% of severely delinquent customers in a way that avoided foreclosure. We do this through a consultative approach with each customer to determine the optimal resolution to their delinquency."
Among others also offering testimony at this hearing were Inez Killingsworth, President of ESOP and Calvin Bradford, Board Member of NTIC.
Mr. Rinehart's complete written testimony and spoken remarks will be posted on www.ocwen.com shortly.
Ocwen Financial Corporation is a leading provider of servicing and origination processing solutions to the loan industry with headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, offices in Orlando, Florida, Lisle, Illinois and Atlanta, Georgia and global operations in Canada, Germany, India and Taiwan. We make our clients' loans worth more by leveraging our superior processes, innovative technology and high-quality, cost-effective global human resources. Additional information is available at www.ocwen.com.