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 Firefighters’ Pension Fund filed a putative securities class action suit against Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and certain of its current or former 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 Portfolio Solutions S.A. share prices. The Court subsequently appointed the Pension Fund for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 and the Annuity Fund for 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 added 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 Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. securities between April 25, 2013 and December 21, 2014 and an unspecified amount of damages. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. moved to dismiss the suit on March 23, 2015. On September 4, 2015, the Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding that the Lead Plaintiffs’ amended complaint failed to state a claim as to any of the defendants, but permitting the Lead Plaintiffs to file another amended complaint. Lead Plaintiffs subsequently filed second and third amended complaints with substantially similar claims and theories. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. moved to dismiss the third amended complaint on October 22, 2015. On December 22, 2015, the Court issued an order dismissing with prejudice all claims against Ocwen Financial Corporation and certain claims against Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and the officer and director defendants, but denying the motion to dismiss as to other claims. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. intends to continue to vigorously defend this suit.

On February 11, 2015, W.A. Sokolowski, an alleged shareholder of Ocwen Financial Corporation, filed an amended shareholder derivative complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Ocwen Financial Corporation (as a nominal defendant), certain of its current or former officers and directors, Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and other companies. The suit seeks recovery of an unspecified amount of damages for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty by Ocwen Financial Corporation’s officers and directors, which were allegedly aided and abetted by Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and other defendants. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on November 9, 2015. While that motion was pending, additional lawsuits alleging similar claims for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty by current or former Ocwen Financial Corporation’s officers and directors were filed in or transferred to the Court. The Court subsequently consolidated these actions and denied Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A.’s motion to dismiss the Sokolowski complaint without prejudice to re-file following appointment of lead counsel for the consolidated action and the filing or designation of an operative complaint. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit and to move to dismiss all claims against it.

On March 26, 2015, Robert Moncavage, an alleged shareholder of Ocwen Financial Corporation, filed an amended shareholder derivative complaint in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida against Ocwen Financial Corporation, certain of its current or former officers and directors, Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and other companies. The suit seeks recovery of an unspecified amount of damages for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty by the current or former Ocwen Financial Corporation’s officers and directors, which were allegedly aided and abetted by Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. and other defendants. On November 9, 2015, the Court entered an order staying all proceedings in the case pending further order of the Court. If the litigation proceeds, Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit and to move to dismiss all claims against it.

Altisource is unable to predict the outcomes of these lawsuits or reasonably estimate the potential loss, if any, arising from the suits, given the forthcoming motions to dismiss in the second and third cases have not yet been adjudicated, a stay has been entered in the third case, discovery has not occurred in any of the cases and significant legal and factual issues remain to be determined in all three cases.

In addition to the matters 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

Periodically, we are subject to audits and examinations by federal, state and local governmental authorities and receive subpoenas, civil investigative demands or other requests for information from such governmental authorities in connection with their regulatory or investigative authority. We are currently responding to such inquiries from governmental authorities 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 2015 revenue was from Ocwen. Additionally, 21% of our 2015 revenue was earned on the portfolios serviced by Ocwen, when a party other than Ocwen selected Altisource as the service provider. During the fourth quarter of 2015, Altisource recorded an estimated loss in connection with an anticipated payment to Ocwen for obtaining a release of liability for Altisource related to Ocwen’s settlement of a particular case. While currently being negotiated, the ultimate resolution of the matter is not expected to result in a material loss in excess of the amount accrued.

Ocwen has been and is subject to a number of 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 the 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 (as that term is set forth in Ocwen’s consent order with the NYDFS), 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. Additionally, as Ocwen has publicly disclosed, it has reached a resolution with the staff of the SEC related to an investigation of certain matters, including Ocwen’s business dealings with related party entities, including Altisource, and its amendments to its 2013 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2014, pursuant to which it will pay a civil monetary penalty and consent to the entry of an administrative order requiring that it cease and desist from violations of certain provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. 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.

On April 6, 2015, HLSS completed the sale of substantially all of its assets to NRZ. As a result, as of September 30, 2015, NRZ owns the rights to approximately 77% of Ocwen’s non-government-sponsored enterprise (“non-GSE”) servicing rights. In connection with the sale, Ocwen and HLSS/NRZ amended their agreement to, among other things, eliminate HLSS/NRZ’s ability to transfer servicing away from Ocwen for a servicer rating downgrade for two years (unless HLSS/NRZ determine in good faith that a trustee, or other party entitled to terminate, intends to terminate Ocwen as the servicer) and extend the term of the initial six-year agreements by up to an additional two years. Under the amended agreement, HLSS/NRZ has the right (not necessarily the ability) to transfer servicing away from Ocwen if, among other circumstances, Ocwen fails to maintain certain minimum servicer ratings on or after April 6, 2017. As of December 31, 2015, we believe Ocwen’s servicer ratings were below the minimum rating.

If Ocwen does not achieve the minimum required servicer ratings prior to April 6, 2017, HLSS/NRZ has the right to transfer certain of Ocwen’s servicing pursuant to its contract. Further, certain bondholders of Ocwen-serviced residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) have alleged that Ocwen, as servicer of certain mortgage-backed securities trusts, defaulted on these servicing agreements. Bondholders of RMBS may attempt to replace Ocwen as servicer as a result of such ratings downgrades or the alleged defaults.

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 and software services), it may be required to seek changes to its existing pricing structure with us 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. Any or all of these effects could result in our eventual loss of Ocwen as a customer or a reduction in the number and/or 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 and Altisource fails to be retained as a service provider


•	Ocwen loses state servicing licenses in states with a significant number of loans in Ocwen’s servicing portfolio and Altisource fails to be retained as a service provider


•	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 would allow 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:


•	Continue to grow our Servicer Solutions business


•	Continue to grow our Origination Solutions business


•	Continue to grow Owners.com, our consumer real estate offering


•	Continue to grow our Real Estate Investor Solutions business

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. 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, 2015 under non-cancelable operating leases with an original term exceeding one year are as follows:



(in thousands)	Operating lease obligations

2016	$	17,308
2017	15,085
2018	10,983
2019	7,451
2020	3,654
Thereafter	4,860

	$	59,341

Total operating lease expense, net of sublease income, was $20.0 million, $20.1 million and $12.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The operating leases generally relate to office locations and reflect customary lease terms which range from 1 to 7 years in duration.

In connection with the acquisition of Equator (see Note 5), we executed a standby letter of credit in the amount of $0.7 million related to an office lease, secured by a restricted cash balance. In addition, we executed standby letters of credit totaling $1.7 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 $66.6 million and $62.5 million at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.