Citigroup plans to exit U.S. mortgage servicing operations by 2018

Citigroup Inc said on Monday that it would speed up the transformation of its U.S. mortgage business by effectively exiting servicing operations by the end of 2018.

Citi will be selling its mortgage servicing rights on about 780,000 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans of non-Citibank retail customers to New Residential Mortgage LLC (NRZ).

The remaining Citi-owned loans and other mortgage servicing rights not sold to NRZ are expected to be transferred to Cenlar FSB in 2018.

The lender said it expected these deals to hurt first-quarter pretax results by about $400 million, including a loss on sale and certain related transaction costs.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru)