Treatment of Mortgage Loans and Mortgage Servicing Rights Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act

Transactions involving the purchase and sale of residential mortgage loans and mortgage servicing rights (“MSRs”) frequently raise the question of whether they require submitting premerger notification filings to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (“HSR Act”). This Legal Update provides an overview of how residential mortgage loans, MSRs and related assets are treated for HSR purposes in the context of asset or servicing platform sales and equity transactions pertaining to entities that hold mortgage loans or MSRs, including residential mortgage servicers.