COMMITMENTS, CONTINGENCIES AND REGULATORY MATTERS

Litigation

From time to time, we are involved in legal and administrative proceedings arising in the course of our business. We record a liability for these matters if an unfavorable outcome is probable and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated, including expected insurance coverage. For proceedings where the reasonable estimate of loss is a range, we record a best estimate of loss within the range.

On September 8, 2014, the West Palm Beach Firefighter’s Pension Fund filed a putative securities class action suit against Altisource and certain of its officers and directors in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 with regard to disclosures concerning pricing and transactions with related parties that allegedly inflated Altisource share prices. The court subsequently appointed the Pension Fund of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 and the Annuity Fund of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 as Lead Plaintiffs. On January 30, 2015, Lead Plaintiffs filed an amended class action complaint which adds Ocwen Financial Corporation as a defendant, and seeks a determination that the action may be maintained as a class action on behalf of purchasers of the Company’s securities between April 25, 2013 and December 21, 2014 and an unspecified amount of damages. Altisource intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit. Altisource is unable to predict the outcome of this lawsuit or reasonably estimate the potential loss, if any, arising from the suit, given that motions to dismiss have not yet been filed or adjudicated, discovery has not commenced and significant legal and factual issues remain to be determined.

In addition to the matter referenced above, we are involved in legal actions in the course of our business, some of which seek monetary damages. We do not believe that the outcome of these proceedings, both individually and in the aggregate, will have a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

Regulatory Matters

Our business is subject to regulation and oversight by federal, state and local governmental authorities. We periodically receive subpoenas, civil investigative demands or other requests for information from regulatory agencies in connection with their regulatory or investigative authority. We are currently responding to such inquiries from federal and state agencies relating to certain aspects of our business. We believe it is premature to predict the potential outcome or to estimate any potential financial impact in connection with these inquiries.

Ocwen Related Matters

Ocwen is our largest customer and 60% of our 2014 revenue was related party revenue from Ocwen. Additionally, 24% of our 2014 revenue was earned on the portfolios serviced by Ocwen, but is not considered related party revenue because a party other than Ocwen selects Altisource as the service provider. Ocwen has been and is subject to a number of pending federal and state regulatory investigations, inquiries and requests for information that have or could result in adverse regulatory actions against Ocwen. For example, as a result of various regulatory actions, Ocwen is (i) subject to an independent auditor’s review of compliance with California servicing laws and has agreed not to obtain any new servicing rights in California until the regulator is satisfied with future document requests, (ii) operating under the oversight of an on-site operations monitor imposed by New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”), which is assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of Ocwen’s operations, including information technology systems, (iii) required to perform benchmarking pricing studies for transactions with related parties, which are subject to periodic review by the monitor imposed by the NYDFS and (iv) subject to requirements under an agreement with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and various states attorneys general and agencies that imposed specific servicing guidelines and oversight by an independent national monitor, who recently reported they were investigating the reliability of information Ocwen has provided. In addition to these matters, Ocwen continues to be subject to other regulatory investigations, inquiries and requests for information and pending legal proceedings, and Ocwen may become subject to future federal and state regulatory investigations, inquiries and requests for information, any of which could also result in adverse regulatory or other actions against Ocwen.

As a result of these various difficulties faced by Ocwen, its debt and servicer ratings have been downgraded. Further, certain bondholders of Ocwen-serviced residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) alleged that Ocwen, as servicer of certain mortgage-backed securities trusts, defaulted on these servicing agreements.

Ocwen relies, in part, on HLSS to finance its operations. For a significant portion of Ocwen-serviced non-government-sponsored enterprise (“non-GSE”) loans, HLSS owns (1) the rights to receive the servicing fees that Ocwen is entitled to receive and (2) associated servicing advances. As a result of certain of the foregoing matters, HLSS has received notices of default with respect to certain of its debt financing and has received demands from a shareholder that servicing be transferred away from Ocwen.

The foregoing may have significant and varied effects on Ocwen’s business and our continuing relationships with Ocwen. For example, Ocwen may be required to alter the way it conducts business, including the parties it contracts with for services (including information technology services), it may be required to seek changes to its existing pricing structure with related parties or otherwise, it may lose or sell some or all of its non-GSE servicing rights or subservicing arrangements or may lose one or more of its state servicing licenses. Additional regulatory actions may impose additional restrictions on or require changes in Ocwen’s business that would require it to sell assets or change its business operations. Further, Ocwen’s ability to finance its operations and repay maturing obligations rests in large part on its ability and the ability of HLSS to continue to borrow money, which also may be affected by any or all of the circumstances described above. Any or all of these effects could result in our eventual loss of Ocwen as a customer or a reduction in the volume of services they purchase from us or the loss of other customers.

If any of the following events occurred, Altisource’s revenue would be significantly lower and our results of operations would be materially adversely affected, including from the impairment or write-off of goodwill, intangible assets, property and equipment, other assets and accounts receivable:


•	Altisource loses Ocwen as a customer or there is a significant reduction in the volume of services they purchase from us


•	Ocwen loses or sells a significant portion or all of its non-GSE servicing rights or subservicing arrangements


•	Ocwen loses its state servicing licenses in states with a significant number of loans in Ocwen’s servicing portfolio


•	The contractual relationship between Ocwen and Altisource changes significantly or there are significant changes to our pricing to Ocwen for services from which we generate material revenue

Management cannot predict the outcome of the Ocwen related matters or the impact they may have on Altisource. However, in the event these Ocwen related matters materially negatively impact Altisource, we believe the impact to Altisource would occur over an extended period of time and the variable nature of our cost structure allows us to realign our cost structure in line with remaining revenue.

In this regard, we have a plan that allows us to efficiently execute on this realignment. We believe that transfers of Ocwen’s servicing rights to a successor servicer(s) would take an extended period of time because of the approval required from many parties, including regulators, rating agencies, RMBS trustees, lenders and others. During this period of time, we believe we would continue to generate revenue from the services we provide to the portfolio. Additionally, we have several growth initiatives that focus on diversifying and growing our revenue and customer base. Our major growth initiatives include:


•	Attracting new clients to our comprehensive default related businesses


•	Growing our origination services and technology businesses


•	Expanding our innovative online real estate marketplaces


•	Growing our property management and renovation services businesses

We have an established sales and marketing strategy to support each of these initiatives.

Management believes our plans, together with current liquidity and cash flows from operations will be sufficient to meet working capital, capital expenditures, debt service and other cash needs for at least the next year. However, there can be no assurance that our plans would be successful or our operations would be profitable.

Leases

We lease certain premises and equipment under various operating lease agreements. Future minimum lease payments at December 31, 2014 under non-cancelable operating leases with an original term exceeding one year are as follows:



(in thousands)	Operating lease obligations

2015	$	17,924
2016	15,357
2017	11,841
2018	7,941
2019	5,060
Thereafter	5,355

	$	63,478

Total operating lease expense, net of sublease income, was $20.1 million, $12.8 million and $10.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The operating leases generally relate to office locations and reflect customary lease terms which range from 1 to 10 years in duration.

In connection with the acquisition of Equator (see Note 5), we executed a standby letter of credit in the amount of $1.5 million related to an office lease, secured by a restricted cash balance. In addition, we executed standby letters of credit totaling $1.8 million for three other office leases.

Escrow and Trust Balances

We hold customers’ assets in escrow and trust accounts at various financial institutions pending completion of certain real estate activities. We also hold cash in trust accounts at various financial institutions where contractual obligations mandate maintaining dedicated bank accounts for Financial Services collections. These amounts are held in escrow and trust accounts for limited periods of time and are not included in the consolidated balance sheets. Amounts held in escrow and trust accounts were $62.5 million and $71.8 million at December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.