Have you ever heard of Nationstar Mortgage? I had not either, and there might be a reason for this. In August of 2017, Nationstar mortgage underwent a large branding campaign to become known as, wait for it, Mr. Cooper. I am not kidding. Apparently Nationstar has a somewhat troubled past. They held a lot of mortgages that defaulted back during the housing crash, and haven’t exactly done much since then to improve their image. From 2011 to 2014, the State of New York found over 900 mortgage loans that Nationstar failed to fund in a timely manner, resulting in various consequences to their clients. They also opened branch offices with the proper authorization, did not maintain the proper documentation for client files, did not post their fee schedule, did not submit quarterly reports on time, and also failed to file 90-day pre-foreclosure notices with the DFS. This led to a $5 million fine, $5 million donated to a local nonprofit, and $7 million being refunded to their clients.
What was Nationstar’s answer to all of this? Well, they rebranded as a fictional character named Mr. Cooper. Mr. Cooper, according to Nationstar, is your friend. Mr. Cooper solves your problems. Mr. Cooper also collects your money, as Nationstar clients now write their mortgage checks to “Mr. Cooper”. Ironically, the fines I mentioned above were levied shortly after Nationstar rebranded as Mr. Cooper, so apparently Mr. Cooper is a friend who collects your money and also gets hit with large fines by the NYDFS.
