Black Knight Inc. is attempting to sell its mortgage loan origination technology business to satisfy antitrust concerns of the company’s acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., Reuters news service reported Feb. 9.
The deal announced in May 2022 has been under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission because of concerns the merged company would control too much of the mortgage technology market.
Jacksonville-based Black Knight dominates the market for mortgage servicing software, providing processing services for almost two-thirds of all U.S. first mortgage loans.
New York-based ICE is best known as the operator of the New York Stock Exchange but it also has a mortgage technology unit that provides software for about half of all home loan originations.
Black Knight has a much smaller loan origination platform called Empower that controls about 10% of that market, but the FTC is addressing concerns that ICE would end up with too much of the origination technology market after acquiring Black Knight.
Reuters, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said Black Knight has engaged Truist Financial Corp. to find potential buyers for Empower, with the consent of ICE. The companies hope divesting Empower would satisfy antitrust concerns.
ICE Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher reiterated in the company’s quarterly conference call Feb. 2 that he expects the acquisition to close in the first half of this year, but he said he couldn’t comment further as it works with the FTC.