PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. - Annual Report: 2020 (Form 10-K)

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

Form 10-K

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Commission file number: 001-38727

PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.

(formerly known as New PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.)

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(818) 224-7442

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒  No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.  Yes ☒  No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of June 30, 2020 the aggregate market value of the registrant’s Common Stock, $0.0001 par value (“common stock”), held by non-affiliates was $1,739,903,749 based on the closing price as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on that date.

As of February 22, 2021, the number of outstanding shares of common stock of the registrant was 69,244,063.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

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PENNYMAC FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC.

FORM 10-K

December 31, 2020

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

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This Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Report”) contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “potential,” “intend,” “expect,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “approximately,” “believe,” “could,” “project,” “predict,” “continue,” “plan” or other similar words or expressions.

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Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions, discuss future expectations, describe future plans and strategies, contain financial and operating projections or state other forward-looking information. Examples of forward-looking statements include the following:

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Our ability to predict results or the actual effect of future events, actions, plans or strategies is inherently uncertain. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, our actual results and performance could differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There are a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control that could cause actual results to differ significantly from management’s expectations. Some of these factors are discussed below.

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You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement and should consider the following uncertainties and risks, as well as the risks and uncertainties discussed elsewhere in this Report and as set forth in Item IA. of Part I hereof and any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

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Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated include, but are not limited to:

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Other factors that could also cause results to differ from our expectations may not be described in this Report or any other document.  Each of these factors could by itself, or together with one or more other factors, adversely affect our business, results of operations and/or financial condition.

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Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statement was made.

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PART I

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Item 1. Business

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The following description of our business should be read in conjunction with the information included elsewhere in this Report. This description contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ significantly from the projections and results discussed in the forward-looking statements due to the factors described under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Report. References in this Report to “we,” “our,” “us,” and the “Company” refer to PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. (formerly known as New PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.)(“PFSI”).

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Our Company

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We are a specialty financial services firm with a comprehensive mortgage platform and integrated business primarily focused on the production and servicing of U.S. residential mortgage loans (activities which we refer to as mortgage banking) and the management of investments related to the U.S. mortgage market. We believe that our operating capabilities, specialized expertise, access to long-term investment capital, and our management’s experience across all aspects of the mortgage business will allow us to profitably grow these activities and capitalize on other related opportunities as they arise in the future.

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We operate and control all of the business and affairs and consolidate the financial results of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC (“PennyMac”). PennyMac was founded in 2008 by members of our executive leadership team and two strategic partners, BlackRock Mortgage Ventures, LLC (“BlackRock” or “BlackRock, Inc.”) and HC Partners, LLC, formerly known as Highfields Capital Investments, LLC, together with its affiliates (“Highfields”).

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We were formed as a Delaware corporation on July 2, 2018. We became the top-level parent holding company for the consolidated PennyMac business pursuant to a corporate reorganization (the “Reorganization”) that was consummated on November 1, 2018. Before the Reorganization, PNMAC Holdings, Inc. (formerly known as PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.) (“PNMAC Holdings”) was our top-level parent holding company and our public company registrant.

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One result of the consummation of the Reorganization was that our equity structure was changed to create a single class of publicly-held common stock as opposed to the two classes that were in place before the Reorganization. PNMAC Holdings’ financial statements remain our historical financial statements.

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Our principal mortgage banking subsidiary, PennyMac Loan Services, LLC (“PLS”), is a non-bank producer and servicer of mortgage loans. PLS is a seller/servicer for the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), each of which is a government-sponsored entity (“GSE”). PLS is also an approved issuer of securities guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”), a lender of the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”), and a lender/servicer of the Veterans Administration (“VA”) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”). We refer to each of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, FHA, VA and USDA as an “Agency” and collectively as the “Agencies.” PLS is able to service loans in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and originate loans in 49 states and the District of Columbia, either because it is properly licensed in a particular jurisdiction or exempt or otherwise not required to be licensed in that jurisdiction.

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Our investment management subsidiary is PNMAC Capital Management, LLC (“PCM”), a Delaware limited liability company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”), as amended. PCM manages PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (“PMT”), a mortgage real estate investment trust listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PMT. PCM previously managed PNMAC Mortgage Opportunity Fund, LLC, PNMAC Mortgage Opportunity Fund, LP, an affiliate of these funds and PNMAC Mortgage Opportunity Fund Investors, LLC. We refer to these funds collectively as our Investment Funds. The Investment Funds were dissolved during 2018.

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We conduct our business in three segments: production, servicing (together, production and servicing comprise our mortgage banking activities) and investment management.

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Following is a summary of our segments’ results:

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Mortgage Banking

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Loan Production

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Our loan production segment sources new prime credit quality first-lien residential conventional and government-insured or guaranteed mortgage loans through three channels: correspondent production, consumer direct lending and broker direct lending as described below.

Correspondent Production

In correspondent production we manage, on behalf of PMT and for our own account, the purchase from non-affiliates of mortgage loans that have been underwritten to investor guidelines. Our correspondent loans are directed to each entity based on the guarantor of the mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) created from the loans: our production focus has been on loans insured or guaranteed by the FHA, VA or USDA for sale into Ginnie Mae-guaranteed MBS, whereas PMT’s production focus has been on loans that can be sold into MBS guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

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This arrangement exists, in part, because PMT is not approved as an issuer of Ginnie Mae-guaranteed MBS. As a result, PMT sells the government-insured or guaranteed loans that it purchases from correspondent sellers to us and we pay PMT a sourcing fee ranging from one to two basis points, generally based on the average number of calendar days that PMT holds the loans before our purchase. We generally pool the government-insured or guaranteed loans into Ginnie Mae guaranteed MBS and then sell such MBS to institutional investors.

In our correspondent production activities, for loans we source for our own account, we earn loan origination fees from the correspondent sellers, interest income on the loans during the time we hold such loans, gains or losses from the date we make a commitment to purchase the loans through the sale of these loans, and, in sales to entities other than PMT, we generally retain and recognize the fair value of the contractual rights to service the loans on behalf of the purchaser of the loans. These contracts are referred to as mortgage servicing rights (“MSRs”).

In our loan fulfillment activities in support of PMT’s correspondent production activities, we earn fulfillment fees and tax service fees. We may also serve as a correspondent seller of newly originated loans from our consumer direct and broker direct lending channels to PMT under a mortgage loan purchase agreement. When we sell loans to PMT, PMT obtains the mortgage servicing rights relating to such loans. As such, our gains on sale of loans to PMT are primarily cash gains. During our 2017, 2018, 2019 and early 2020 fiscal years, we sold newly originated conventional conforming loans to PMT as PMT had available a selling arrangement that offered us more attractive pricing for certain conventional conforming loans than was otherwise available to us. We ceased such sales to PMT during the second quarter of 2020 as the more attractive pricing was no longer available to us. However, we may in the future enter into other sales arrangements with PMT where such arrangements are attractive to us and approved by the related party matters committees of both companies’ boards. Both companies’ related party matters committees are comprised of independent directors/trustees from the respective board.

Consumer Direct Lending

Through our consumer direct lending channel, we originate mortgage loans on a national basis. Our consumer direct model relies on the Internet and call center-based staff to acquire and interact with customers across the country. We do not have a “brick and mortar” branch network.

In our consumer direct lending activities, we earn loan origination fees from the borrower, interest income during the time we hold the loan before sale, gains or losses from the date we make a commitment to fund the loan through the sale of these loans, and, in sales to entities other than to PMT, we retain and recognize the fair value of the associated MSRs. To the extent we refinance loans that we subservice for PMT where PMT owns the related MSRs, we are generally required to transfer and convey to PMT a recapture fee payable in cash.

Broker Direct Lending

In broker direct lending, we obtain loan application packages from nonaffiliated mortgage loan brokers, underwrite and fund the resulting loans for sale to PMT or investors. In our broker direct lending activities, we earn interest income, gains or losses from the date we make a commitment to fund the loan through the sale of these loans, and, in sales to entities other than PMT, we retain and recognize the fair value of the associated MSRs.

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Our loan production activity is summarized below:

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The effect of our loan production transactions with PMT on our financial statements are summarized below:

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Loan Servicing

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Our loan servicing segment performs loan administration, collection, and default management activities, including the collection and remittance of loan payments; response to customer inquiries; accounting for principal and interest; holding custodial (impounded) funds for the payment of property taxes and insurance premiums; counseling delinquent borrowers; and supervising foreclosures and property dispositions.

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We service loans both as the owner of MSRs and as the subservicer on behalf of PMT.

The UPB of our loan servicing portfolio is summarized below:

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Our responsibilities and risks relating to loans we service in arrangements where we own the MSRs or mortgage servicing liabilities (“MSLs”) differ from those where we act as subservicer for the owner of the servicing rights. As the owner of the servicing rights:

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As the subservicer for the owner of servicing rights, we do not carry MSRs or MSLs on our balance sheet and therefore do not recognize changes in the fair value of MSRs or MSLs and are generally not responsible for financing the advance of corporate funds to protect the loan owners’ interest in the collateral securing such loans. As a result, the fees we earn from such arrangements are generally less on a per-loan basis than those we earn from holding MSRs and MSLs.

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Following is a summary of our net loan servicing fees:

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Investment Management

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We are an investment manager through our subsidiary, PCM. PCM currently manages PMT and, before 2019, managed the Investment Funds. For these activities, we earn management fees as a percentage of net assets and may earn incentive compensation based on investment performance. During 2018, we completed the liquidation of the Investment Funds.

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The net assets of PMT are summarized below:

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Human Capital

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Our long-term growth and success is highly dependent upon our employees and our ability to maintain a diverse and inclusive workplace that represents a broad spectrum of backgrounds, ideas and perspectives. As part of these efforts, we strive to offer competitive compensation and benefits, foster a community where everyone feels a greater sense of belonging and purpose, and provide employees with the opportunity to give back and make an impact in the communities where we live and serve.

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During 2020, our workforce grew from over 4,000 domestic employees as of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 to over 6,000 domestic employees as of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. At the end of fiscal year 2020, our workforce was 53.3% female and 46.7% male, and the ethnicity of our workforce was 43.7% White, 23.4% Hispanic, 16.8% Black, 10.3% Asian and 5.8% other.

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Recruiting and Employee Retention

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We believe in attracting, developing and engaging the best talent, while providing a supportive work environment that prioritizes the health and safety of our employees. Our compensation programs are designed to motivate and reward employees who possess the necessary skills to support our business strategy and create long-term value for our stockholders. Employee compensation may include base salary, annual cash incentives, and long-term equity incentives, as well as life and health insurance and 401(k) plan matching contributions.

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Employees receive regular training to help further enhance their career development objectives and we also actively manage an enterprise-wide mentoring program. We have partnered with an external vendor to establish a comprehensive, fully integrated wellness program designed to enhance the productivity of our employees. We also support the U.S. military through our continued focus on recruiting and creating opportunities for veterans. For example, we established the Veterans Engaging Mentorships, Relationships, and Growth program to further our efforts to hire, support, and create a community of veterans and veteran families.

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Diversity and Inclusion

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We believe that building a diverse and inclusive, high-performing workforce where our employees bring varied perspectives and experiences to work every day creates a positive influence in our workplace, community and business operations. Our Board of Directors, our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and our Risk Committee provide regular oversight on our corporate sustainability, diversity and inclusion programs and initiatives. During 2020, we established leadership goals and created customized initiatives that focused on our continued effort to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in management positions throughout our company and its business divisions. As it relates to gender diversity, we established the Women Empowering Mentorships, Relationships, and Growth program to emphasize career growth, networking, and learning opportunities for women at the management level. We also foster a more inclusive culture through a variety of other diversity and inclusion initiatives, including corporate training, special events, community outreach and corporate philanthropy.

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Community Involvement

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We have a corporate philanthropy program that is governed by a philosophy of giving that prioritizes the support of causes and issues that are important in our local communities, and drives a culture of employee engagement and collaboration throughout our organization. We are committed to empowering our employees to be a positive influence in the communities where we live and serve, and believe that this commitment supports our efforts to attract and engage employees and improve retention. During the 2020 fiscal year, we established a separate donor advised fund to facilitate donations to various local and national charitable organizations.

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U.S. Mortgage Market

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The U.S. residential mortgage market is one of the largest financial markets in the world, with approximately $11.5 trillion of outstanding debt as of September 30, 2020. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, first lien mortgage loan origination volume was approximately $4.0 trillion in 2020. Many of the largest financial institutions, primarily banks which have traditionally held the majority of the market share in mortgage origination and servicing, have reduced their participation in the mortgage market creating opportunities for non-bank participants.

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The residential mortgage industry is characterized by high barriers to entry, including the necessity for approvals required to sell loans to and service loans for the Agencies, state licensing requirements for non-federally chartered banks, sophisticated infrastructure, technology, risk management, and processes required for successful operations, and financial capital requirements.

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Our Growth Strategies

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Our growth strategies include:

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Growing Consumer Direct Lending through Portfolio Recapture and Non-Portfolio Originations

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We expect to grow our consumer direct lending business by leveraging our growing servicing portfolio through recapture of existing customers for refinance and purchase-money loans as well as increasing our non-portfolio originations. As our servicing portfolio grows, we will have a greater number of leads to pursue, which we believe will lead to greater origination activity through our consumer direct business. As of December 31, 2020, we serviced 1.9 million loans. At the same time, we are making significant investments in technology, personnel and marketing to increase our non-portfolio originations. We believe that our national call center model and our technology will enable us to drive origination process efficiencies and best-in-class customer service.

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Growing Broker Direct Lending

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The broker lending channel involves the underwriting and funding of mortgage loans sourced by mortgage loan brokers and other financial intermediaries. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, the broker lending channel represented approximately 14% of U.S. residential mortgage originations in 2020. In 2020, 2019 and 2018, we funded $12.2 billion, $3.8 billion and $378.5 million of mortgage loans, respectively, through our broker direct channel. We plan on growing our mortgage loan volume by adding broker relationships and offering our mortgage loan brokers access to our technology through a dedicated portal.

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Growing Correspondent Production through Expanding Seller Relationships and Adding Products and Services

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We expect to grow our correspondent production business by expanding the number and types of sellers from which we purchase loans and increasing the volume of loans that we purchase from our sellers as we continue to expand to the loan products and services we offer. Over the past several years, a number of large banks have exited or reduced the size of their correspondent production businesses, creating an opportunity for non-bank entities to gain market share. We believe that we are well positioned to continue taking advantage of this opportunity based on our management expertise in the correspondent production business, our relationships with correspondent sellers, and our supporting systems and processes.

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Growing our Mortgage Loan Servicing Portfolio

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We expect to focus the growth of our servicing portfolio on loan production activities, as our correspondent government-insured production and consumer and broker direct lending add new servicing for owned MSRs, and correspondent conventional production adds new subservicing. In 2020, our correspondent, consumer direct and broker direct loan production totaled $196.6 billion in UPB. We may supplement our organic growth with MSR acquisitions, some of which may be concentrated in delinquent or defaulted loans for which we have expertise in servicing. We have acquired MSRs both from large mortgage servicers and independent mortgage bankers, which may sell MSRs due to continuing operational and regulatory and capital pressures. In 2020, we purchased MSRs relating to approximately $2.4 billion in UPB of underlying loans.

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Expansion into New Markets and Products

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We regularly evaluate opportunities to grow our business, including expansion into new markets. We also continue to develop new products to satisfy demand from customers in each of our production channels and respond to changing circumstances in the market for mortgage-related financing.

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Compliance and Regulatory

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Our business is subject to extensive federal, state and local regulation. The CFPB was established on July 21, 2010 under Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The CFPB is responsible for ensuring consumers are provided with timely and understandable information to make responsible decisions about financial transactions, federal consumer financial laws are enforced and consumers are protected from unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices and from discrimination. Although the CFPB’s actions may improve consumer protection, such actions also have resulted in a meaningful increase in costs to consumers and financial services companies including mortgage originators and servicers.

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Our loan production and loan servicing operations are regulated at the state level by state licensing authorities and administrative agencies. We, along with certain PennyMac employees who engage in regulated activities, must apply for licensing as a mortgage banker or lender, loan servicer and debt collector pursuant to applicable state law. These state licensing requirements typically require an application process, the payment of fees, background checks and administrative review. Our servicing operations are licensed (or exempt or otherwise not required to be licensed) to service mortgage loans in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our consumer direct lending business is licensed to originate loans in 49 states and the District of Columbia. From time to time, we receive requests from states and Agencies and various investors for records, documents and information regarding our policies, procedures and practices regarding our loan production and loan servicing business activities, and undergo periodic examinations by federal and state regulatory agencies. We incur significant ongoing costs to comply with these licensing and examination requirements.

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The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (the “SAFE Act”) requires all states to enact laws that require all individuals acting in the United States as mortgage loan originators to be individually licensed or registered if they intend to offer mortgage loan products. These licensing requirements include enrollment in the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System, application to state regulators for individual licenses and the completion of pre-licensing education, annual education and the successful completion of both national and state exams.

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We must comply with a number of federal consumer protection laws, including, among others:

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Many of these laws are further impacted by the SAFE Act and implementation of new rules by the CFPB.

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Our senior management team has established a comprehensive compliance management system ("CMS") that is designed to ensure compliance with applicable mortgage origination and servicing laws and regulations. The components of our CMS include: (a) oversight by senior management and our Board of Directors to ensure that our compliance culture, guidance, and resources are appropriate; (b) a compliance program to ensure that our policies, training and monitoring activities are complete and comprehensive; (c) a complaint management program to ensure that consumer complaints are appropriately addressed and that any required actions are implemented on a timely basis; and (d) independent oversight to ensure that our CMS is functioning as designed.

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An important component of the CMS is management’s Mortgage Regulatory Compliance Committee (“MRCC”). This committee oversees the CMS and supports our cultural initiatives that reinforce the importance of regulatory compliance. The MRCC also monitors changes in the internal and external environment, approves mortgage compliance policies, monitors compliance with those policies and ensures any required remediation is implemented on a timely basis. The MRCC has identified individuals throughout the organization to oversee specific areas of compliance. MRCC membership includes senior management from all areas of the Company impacted by mortgage compliance laws and regulations. The MRCC meets on a regular basis throughout the year.

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Intellectual Property

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We rely on a combination of trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, as well as confidentiality and contractual provisions to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technologies. We hold various registered trademarks, including trademarks with respect to the name PennyMac^®, the swirl design and rooftop design appearing in certain PennyMac drawings and logos and various additional designs and word marks relating to the PennyMac name. Depending upon the jurisdiction, trademarks generally are valid as long as they are in use and/or their registrations are properly maintained. We generally intend to renew our trademarks as they come up for renewal. Our other intellectual property includes proprietary know-how and technological innovations, such as our proprietary workflow driven cloud based servicing system, as well as proprietary pricing engines, loan-level analytics systems and other trade secrets that we have developed to maintain our competitive position.

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Competition

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Given the diverse and specialized nature of our businesses, we do not believe we have a direct competitor for the totality of our business. We compete with a number of nationally-focused companies in each of our businesses.

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In our loan production and servicing segments, we compete with large financial institutions and with other independent residential mortgage loan producers and servicers, such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Rocket Mortgage, Mr. Cooper and United Wholesale Mortgage. In our loan production segment, we compete primarily on the basis of product offerings, technical knowledge, manufacturing quality, speed of execution, rate and fees. In our servicing segment, we compete primarily on the basis of experience in the residential loan servicing business, quality and efficiency of execution and servicing performance. In our investment management segment, we compete for capital with both traditional and alternative investment managers. We compete primarily on the basis of historical track record of risk-adjusted returns, experience of investment management team, the return profile of prospective investment opportunities and on the level of fees and expenses.

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Available Information

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Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and amendments to those reports filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are available free of charge through the investor relations section of our website at www.pennymacfinancial.com as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing such material with the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding our filings at www.sec.gov. The above references to our website and the SEC’s website do not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on those websites and should not be considered part of this document.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

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Summary Risk Factors

We are subject to a number of risks that, if realized, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and our ability to make distributions to our shareholders. Some of our more significant challenges and risks include, but are not limited to, the following, which are described in greater detail below:

beyond expected levels may adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Risk Factors

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In addition to the other information set forth in this Report, you should carefully consider the following factors, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations in future periods. The risks described below are not the only risks that we face. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations in future periods.

Risks Related to Our Mortgage Banking Segment

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Regulatory Risks

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Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented economic, financial and public health disruptions that have adversely affected, and are likely to continue to adversely affect, our business, financial condition and results of operations. The extent to which COVID-19 continues to negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including the scope and duration of the pandemic and actions taken by governmental authorities and other third parties in response to COVID-19.

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The federal government enacted the CARES Act, which allows borrowers with federally-backed loans to request temporary payment forbearance in response to the increased borrower hardships resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The initial forbearance period is 180 days, subject to another 180 days extension.  In addition, in February 2021 the federal government announced an additional extension of three to six months depending on loan type. As a result of the CARES Act forbearance requirements, we expect to experience continue elevated delinquencies in our servicing portfolio that may require us to finance substantial amounts of advances of principal and interest payments to the investors holding those loans, as well as advances of property taxes, insurance premiums and other expenses to protect investors’

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interests in the properties securing the loans. In fiscal year 2020, elevated prepayment activity was sufficient to cover principal and interest payment advances required under the CARES Act, however, in the future elevated prepayment activity may be insufficient to cover required principal and interest advances. We also expect the effects of the CARES Act forbearance requirements to reduce our servicing fee income and increase our servicing expenses due to the increased number of delinquent loans, significant levels of forbearance that we have granted and continue to grant, as well as the resolution of loans that we expect to ultimately default as the result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Future servicing advances will be driven by the number of borrower delinquencies, including those resulting from payment forbearance; the amount of time borrowers remain delinquent; and the level of successful resolution of delinquent payments, all of which will be impacted by the pace at which the economy recovers from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As of December 31, 2020, 7.2% of loans in our predominantly government-insured or guaranteed MSR portfolio were in forbearance plans and delinquent resulting in an increase in the level of servicing advances we have been required to make due to borrower delinquencies. Servicing advances resulting from COVID-19 could have a significant adverse impact on our cash flows and could also have a detrimental effect on our business and financial condition.

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Financial markets have experienced substantial volatility and reduced liquidity, resulting in unprecedented federal government intervention to lower the federal funds rate to near zero and support market liquidity by purchasing assets in many financial markets, including the mortgage-backed securities market. The CARES Act forbearance requirements and the decline in interest rates have negatively impacted the fair value of our servicing assets. In addition, the CARES Act forbearance requirements and the decline in the value of financial assets linked to consumer credit performance in early 2020 caused PMT to report material losses and negatively affected PMT's shareholders' equity and net assets under management.  Consequently, we experienced a reduction in our base management fees from PMT in fiscal year 2020. Further market volatility or economic weakness may result in additional declines in the value of our servicing assets, lower base management fees and make it increasingly difficult to optimize our hedging activities. Also, our liquidity and/or regulatory capital could be adversely impacted by volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets. In addition, if we fail to meet or satisfy any of the covenants in our repurchase agreements or other financing arrangements as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we would be in default under these agreements, which could result in a cross-default or cross-acceleration under other financing arrangements, and our lenders could elect to declare outstanding amounts due and payable (or such amounts may automatically become due and payable), terminate their commitments, require the posting of additional collateral and enforce their respective interests against existing collateral.

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We may also have difficulty accessing debt and equity capital on attractive terms, or at all, as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may adversely affect our access to capital necessary to fund our operations or address maturing liabilities on a timely basis. This includes renewals of our existing credit facilities with our lenders who may be adversely impacted by the volatility and dislocations in the financial markets and may not be willing or able to continue to extend us credit on the same terms, or on favorable terms, or at all.

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In addition, our business could be disrupted if we are unable to operate due to changing governmental restrictions such as travel bans and quarantines placed or reinstituted on our employees or operations, including, successfully operating our business from remote locations, ensuring the protection of our employees’ health and maintaining our information technology infrastructure. 

Federal, state, and local executive, legislative and regulatory responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are rapidly evolving, may be inconsistent and conflict in scope or application, and may be subject to change without advance notice. These regulatory responses may impose additional compliance obligations, may extend existing CARES Act forbearance requirements and delay our licensing efforts, which may negatively impact our business. In addition, the CARES Act and other federal, state and local regulations are subject to interpretation given the existing ambiguities in the rules and regulations, which may result in future class action and other litigation risk.

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Governmental authorities have taken additional measures to stabilize the financial markets and support the economy including providing monetary relief and extending foreclosure and eviction moratoria. The outcome of these measures are unknown and they may not be sufficient to address future market dislocations or avert severe and prolonged reductions in economic activity. We may also face increased risks of disputes with our business partners, litigation and governmental and regulatory scrutiny as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of the extraordinary measures put in place to address it are currently unknown. Even

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after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, the economy may not fully recover for some time and we may be materially and adversely affected by a prolonged recession or economic downturn.

To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this Item 1A.

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Failure to successfully modify, resell or refinance early buyout loans or defaults of the early buyout loans beyond expected levels may adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the number of Ginnie Mae loans that are seriously delinquent in our Ginnie Mae MSR portfolio.  As a mortgage servicer, we have an early buyout repurchase option (“EBOs”) for loans at least three months delinquent in our Ginnie Mae MSR portfolio. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we have repurchased $9.6 billion delinquent Ginnie Mae loans from our Ginnie Mae MSR portfolio. Purchasing delinquent Ginnie Mae loans provides us with an alternative to our mortgage servicing obligation of advancing principal and interest at the coupon rate of the related Ginnie Mae security. While our EBO program reduces the cost of servicing the Ginnie Mae loans, it may also accelerate loss recognition when the loans are repurchased because we are required to write off accumulated non-reimbursable interest advances and other costs. In addition, after purchasing the delinquent Ginnie Mae loans, we expect to resecuritize many of the delinquent loans into another Ginnie Mae guaranteed security upon the delinquent loans becoming current either through the borrower’s reperformance or through the completion of a loan modification; however, there is no guarantee that any delinquent loan will reperform or be modified. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as changing government regulations, including Ginnie Mae’s 2020 regulations requiring reperforming loan borrowers to make six months of timely payments in certain circumstances before a loan can be repooled into another Ginnie Mae guaranteed security, has made estimating the loan amounts expected to be modified, resold or refinanced more difficult. Failure to successfully modify, resell or refinance our repurchased Ginnie Mae loans or if a significant portion of the repurchased Ginnie Mae loans default may adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We operate in a highly regulated industry and the continually changing federal, state and local laws and regulations could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We are required to comply with a wide array of federal, state and local laws and regulations that regulate, among other things, the manner in which we conduct our businesses. These regulations directly impact our business and require constant compliance, monitoring and internal and external audits and examinations by federal and state regulators. Our failure to operate effectively and in compliance with any of these laws, regulations and rules could subject us to lawsuits or governmental actions and damage our reputation, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. In addition, our failure to comply with these laws, regulations and rules may result in increased costs of doing business, reduced payments by borrowers, modification of the original terms of mortgage loans, permanent forgiveness of debt, delays in the foreclosure process, increased servicing advances, litigation, reputational damage, enforcement actions, and repurchase and indemnification obligations. Further, we may be required to pay substantial penalties imposed by our regulators due to compliance errors, or we may lose our licenses to originate and/or service loans.

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The failure of our correspondent sellers to comply with any applicable laws, regulations and rules may also result in these adverse consequences. We have in place a due diligence program designed to assess areas of risk with respect to loans we acquire from such correspondent sellers. However, we may not detect every violation of law and, to the extent any correspondent sellers, third party originators, servicers or brokers with whom we do business fail to comply with applicable laws or regulations and any of their mortgage loans or MSRs become part of our assets, it could subject us, as an assignee or purchaser of the related mortgage loans or MSRs, to monetary penalties or other losses. While we may have contractual rights to seek indemnity or repurchase from certain of these lenders, third party originators, servicers or brokers, if any of them are unable to fulfill their indemnity or repurchase obligations to us to a material extent, our business, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Our service providers and other vendors are also required to operate in compliance with applicable laws, regulations and rules. Our failure to adequately manage service providers and other vendors to mitigate risks of noncompliance with applicable laws may also have these negative results.

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The recent outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections could result in significant policy changes or regulatory uncertainty in our industry and may also result in increased regulatory scrutiny and enforcement actions. While it is not possible to predict when and whether significant policy or regulatory changes would occur, any such changes on the federal, state or local level could significantly impact, among other things, our operating expenses, the availability of mortgage financing, interest rates, consumer spending, the economy and the geopolitical landscape. To the extent that the new government administration takes action by proposing and/or passing regulatory policies that could have a negative impact on our industry, such actions may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The Financial Stability Oversight Council (“FSOC”) and Conference of State Bank Supervisors (“CSBS”) have been reviewing whether state chartered nonbank mortgage servicers should be subject to “safety and soundness” standards similar to those imposed by federal law on insured depository institutions, even though nonbank mortgage servicers do not have any federally insured deposit accounts. For example, on September 29, 2020, the CSBS released proposed prudential standards for state oversight of nonbank mortgage servicers. The proposed CSBS prudential standards would include revised minimum net worth, capital ratio and liquidity standards similar to existing FHFA requirements and would require servicers to maintain sufficient allowable assets to cover normal operating expenses in addition to the amounts required for servicing expenses. In addition, the FSOC has encouraged state regulators to work to develop prudential and corporate governance standards for nonbank mortgage servicers and has issued guidance describing the process FSOC would follow if it were to consider making a determination to subject a nonbank financial company to supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and prudential standards. To the extent any such state regulators impose new minimum net worth, capital ratio and liquidity standards that are overly burdensome, such actions may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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New CFPB or state rules and regulations or more stringent enforcement of existing rules and regulations by the CFPB or state regulators could result in enforcement actions, fines, penalties and the inherent reputational risk that results from such actions.

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The CFPB has regulatory authority over certain aspects of our business as a result of our residential mortgage banking activities, including, without limitation, the authority to conduct investigations, bring enforcement actions, impose monetary penalties, require remediation of practices, pursue administrative proceedings or litigation, and obtain cease and desist orders for violations of applicable federal consumer financial laws. Although there was a decline in enforcement actions by the CFPB under the prior federal administration, examinations by state regulators and enforcement actions in the residential mortgage and servicing sectors by state attorneys general have increased and may continue to increase under the incoming federal administration. Failure to comply with the CFPB and state laws, rules or regulations to which we are subject, whether actual or alleged, could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our failure to comply with the laws, rules or regulations to which we are subject, whether actual or alleged, would expose us to fines, penalties or potential litigation liabilities, including costs, settlements and judgments, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition and results of operations and our

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ability to make distributions to our shareholders.

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We are highly dependent on U.S. government-sponsored entities and government agencies, and any changes in these entities, their current roles or the leadership at such entities or their regulators could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our ability to generate revenues through mortgage loan sales depends on programs administered by GSEs, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government agencies, including Ginnie Mae, and others that facilitate the issuance of mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), in the secondary market. Presently, almost all of the newly originated loans that we originate directly with borrowers or assist PMT in acquiring from mortgage lenders through our correspondent production activities qualify under existing standards for inclusion in MBS issued by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae. We, or PMT, also derive other material financial benefits from our Agency relationships, including the ability to avoid certain loan inventory finance costs through streamlined loan funding and sale procedures.

A number of legislative proposals have been introduced in recent years that would wind down or phase out the GSEs, including a proposal by the prior federal administration to end the conservatorship and privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On November 18, 2020 the FHFA finalized new regulatory capital rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that requires them to increase their capital to $280 billion. FHFA did not specify how the new regulatory capital requirements will be achieved or a timeframe for meeting the capital target, however, any increase in guaranty fees or other costs imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise additional capital may have a negative impact on the mortgage market and could reduce Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s future role in the mortgage industry. It is not possible to predict the scope and nature of the actions that the U.S. government, including the new incoming federal administration, will ultimately take with respect to the GSEs. Any changes in laws and regulations affecting the relationship between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their regulators or the U.S. federal government, and any changes in leadership at these entities, could adversely affect our business and prospects. Any discontinuation of, or significant reduction in, the operation of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or any significant adverse change in their capital structure, financial condition, activity levels in the primary or secondary mortgage markets or in underwriting criteria could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations and our ability to make distributions to our shareholders

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Elimination of the traditional roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or any changes to the nature or extent of the guarantees provided by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or the fees, terms and guidelines that govern our selling and servicing relationships with them, could also materially and adversely affect our ability to sell and securitize loans through our loan production segment, and the performance, liquidity and market value of our investments. Our ability to generate revenues from newly originated loans that we assist PMT in acquiring through its correspondent production business would be similarly affected. Moreover, any changes to the nature of the GSEs or their guarantee obligations could redefine what constitutes an Agency MBS and could have broad adverse implications for the market and our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our ability to generate revenues from newly originated loans that we assist PMT in acquiring through its correspondent production business is also highly dependent on the fact that the Agencies have not historically acquired such loans directly from mortgage lenders, but have instead relied on banks and non-bank aggregators such as us to acquire, aggregate and securitize or otherwise sell such loans to investors in the secondary market. Certain of the Agencies have approved new and smaller lenders that traditionally may not have qualified for such approvals. To the extent that these mortgage lenders choose to sell directly to the Agencies rather than through loan aggregators like us, the number of loans available for purchase by aggregators is reduced, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. Similarly, to the extent the Agencies increase the number of purchases and sales for their own accounts, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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Our business prospects, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be adversely impacted by the CFPB’s final General Qualified Mortgage (“QM”) loan rule for certain GSE eligible loans and its impact on the ability to repay rules.

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The Dodd-Frank Act provides that a lender must make “a reasonable, good faith determination” of each

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borrower’s ability to repay a loan, but may presume that a borrower will be able to repay a loan if such loan has certain characteristics that meet the QM definition. The CFPB adopted its QM definition that establishes rigorous underwriting and product feature requirements for a loan to be deemed a QM. Within those regulations, the CFPB created a special exemption for the GSEs that is generally referred to as the “QM patch,” which allows any GSE-eligible loan to be deemed a QM. The QM patch effectively provides QM designation for GSE eligible loans that have a debt-to-income ratio in excess of 43%, which represents a meaningful portion of the loans currently purchased by the GSEs. Without the QM patch or an alternative, loans with debt-to-income ratios above 43% would not be designated as QMs unless they were insured by a federal agency such as the FHA or VA, which have each adopted their own QM definition that does not currently have a debt-to-income ratio limitation. In October 2020, the CFPB issued a rule providing that the QM patch will expire on the earlier of the implementation of a final amendment revising the “General QM loan” definition or upon the date that the GSEs exit conservatorship. On December 11, 2020, the CFPB issued final General QM loan rules replacing the debt-to-income ratio limitations with a price-based approach that may have significant implications for the U.S. housing and mortgage market since we do not know how the credit markets and borrowers will respond to the new regulations. Failure to establish effective operational procedures to comply with the final General QM loan rules could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We are required to hold various Agency approvals in order to conduct our business and there is no assurance that we will be able to obtain or maintain those Agency approvals or that changes in Agency guidelines will not materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

We are required to hold certain Agency approvals in order to sell mortgage loans to the Agencies and service such mortgage loans on their behalf. Our failure to satisfy the various requirements necessary to obtain and maintain such Agency approvals over time would restrict our direct business activities and could materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We are also required to follow specific guidelines that impact the way that we originate and service Agency loans. A significant change in these guidelines that has the effect of decreasing the fees we charge or requires us to expend additional resources in providing mortgage services could decrease our revenues or increase our costs, which would also adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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In addition, the FHFA has directed the GSEs to align their guidelines for servicing delinquent mortgages and assess compensatory penalties against servicers in connection with the failure to meet specified timelines relating to delinquent loans and foreclosure proceedings, and other breaches of servicing obligations. Our failure to operate efficiently and effectively within the prevailing regulatory framework and in accordance with the applicable origination and servicing guidelines and/or the loss of our seller/servicer license approval or approved issuer status with the Agencies could result in our failure to benefit from available monetary incentives and/or expose us to monetary penalties and curtailments, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our inability to meet certain net worth and liquidity requirements imposed by the Agencies could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operation.

We are subject to minimum financial eligibility requirements established by the Agencies. These minimum financial requirements, which are described in Liquidity and Capital Resources, include net worth, capital ratio and/or liquidity criteria in order to set a minimum level of capital needed to adequately absorb potential losses and a minimum amount of liquidity needed to service Agency mortgage loans and MBS and cover the associated financial obligations and risks.

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In order to meet these minimum financial requirements, we are required to maintain cash and cash equivalents in amounts that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations, which could significantly impede us from growing our business and place us at a competitive disadvantage in relation to federally chartered banks and certain other financial institutions. To the extent that such minimum financial requirements are not met, the Agencies may suspend or terminate our Agency approvals or agreements, which could cause us to cross default under financing arrangements and/or have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition liquidity and results of operations.

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The failure of PennyMac Loan Services, LLC to avail itself of an appropriate exemption from registration as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

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We intend to operate so that we, and each of our subsidiaries, are not required to register as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Investment Company Act. We believe that our subsidiary, PennyMac Loan Services, LLC (“PLS”), qualifies for one or more exemptions provided in the Investment Company Act because of the historical and current composition of its assets and income; however, there can be no assurances that the composition of PLS’ assets and income will remain the same over time such that one or more exemptions will continue to be applicable.

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If PLS is required to register as an investment company, we would be required to comply with a variety of substantive requirements under the Investment Company Act that impose, among other things: limitations on capital structure; restrictions on specified investments; prohibitions on transactions with affiliates; compliance with reporting, record keeping, voting and proxy disclosure; and, other rules and regulations that would significantly increase our operating expenses. Further, if PLS was or is required to register as an investment company, PLS would be in breach of various representations and warranties contained in its credit and other agreements resulting in a default as to certain of our contracts and obligations. This could also subject us to civil or criminal actions or regulatory proceedings, or result in a court appointed receiver to take control of us and liquidate our business, any or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Liability relating to environmental matters may impact the value of properties that we may acquire or the properties underlying our investments.

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Under various U.S. federal, state and local laws, an owner or operator of real property may become liable for the costs of removal of certain hazardous substances released on its property. These laws often impose liability without regard to whether the owner or operator was responsible for, or aware of, the release of such hazardous substances. The presence of hazardous substances may also adversely affect an owner’s ability to sell real estate, borrow using real estate as collateral or make debt payments to us. In addition, if we take title to a property, the presence of hazardous substances may adversely affect our ability to sell the property, and we may become liable to a governmental entity or to third parties for various fines, damages or remediation costs. Any of these liabilities or events may materially and adversely affect the fair value of the relevant asset and/or our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Market and Financial Risks

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Our mortgage banking revenues are highly dependent on macroeconomic factors and real estate market, mortgage market and financial market conditions.

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The success of our business strategies and our results of operations are materially affected by current or future conditions in the real estate market, mortgage markets, financial markets and the economy generally. Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, deflation, unemployment, personal and business income taxes, healthcare, energy costs, domestic political issues, government shutdowns, climate change and the availability and cost of credit may contribute to increased volatility and unclear expectations for the economy in general and the real estate, mortgage market and financial markets in particular going forward. A destabilization of the real estate market, mortgage market and financial markets or deterioration in these markets also could reduce our loan production volume, reduce the profitability of servicing mortgages or adversely affect our ability to sell mortgage loans that we originate or acquire, either at a profit or

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at all. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We may not be able to effectively manage significant increases or decreases in our loan production volume, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We may experience significant growth in our loan production volumes. If we do not effectively manage our growth and are unable to consistently maintain quality of execution, our reputation and existing relationships with mortgage lenders and brokers could be damaged, we may not be able to maintain PMT’s existing relationships or develop new relationships with mortgage lenders and brokers, our new mortgage products may not gain widespread acceptance and the quality of our correspondent production, consumer direct lending and broker direct lending operations could suffer, all of which could negatively affect our brand and operating results.

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Our loan production segment is also subject to overall market factors that could adversely impact our ability to grow our loan production volume. For example, increased competition from new and existing market participants, reductions in the overall level of refinancing activity or slow growth in the level of new home purchase activity can impact our ability to continue to grow our loan production volumes, and we may be forced to accept lower margins in our respective businesses in order to continue to compete and keep our volume of activity consistent with past or projected levels or be forced to reduce our levels of production activity.

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We have a substantial amount of indebtedness, which may limit our financial and operating activities, expose us to substantial increases in costs due to interest rate fluctuations, expose us to the risk of default under our debt obligations and may adversely affect our ability to incur additional debt to fund future needs.

As of December 31, 2020, we had $12.3 billion of total indebtedness outstanding (approximately $11.6 billion of which was secured) and up to $2.5 billion of additional capacity under our secured borrowings and other secured debt financing arrangements. This substantial indebtedness and any future indebtedness we incur could have adverse consequences and, for example, could:

In addition, our substantial level of indebtedness could limit our ability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, for working capital and general corporate purposes. Our liquidity needs vary significantly from time to time and may be affected by general economic conditions, industry trends, performance and many other factors outside our control.

We rely on external financial arrangements to fund mortgage loans and operate our business and our inability to refinance or enter new financial arrangements could be detrimental to our business.

Our ability to finance our business operations and repay maturing obligations rests in large part on our ability to borrow money. Unlike some of our competitors who fund mortgage loans through bank deposits, we generally fund our

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mortgage loans through borrowings under warehouse facilities and other financial arrangements as well as funds from our operations. Our borrowings are generally repaid with the proceeds we receive from mortgage loan sales. We require new and continued financing to facilitate our anticipated growth. We are generally required to renew many of our financing arrangements each year, which exposes us to refinancing and interest rate risks. Our ability to refinance our existing financial obligations and borrow additional funds is affected by a variety of factors beyond our control including:

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We are also dependent on a limited number of banking institutions that extend us credit on terms that we have determined to be commercially reasonable. These banking institutions are subject to their own regulatory supervision, liquidity and capital requirements, risk management frameworks, profitability and risk thresholds and tolerances, any of which may change materially and negatively impact their business strategies, including their extension of credit to us specifically or mortgage lenders and servicers generally. Certain banking institutions have already exited, and others may in the future decide to exit, the mortgage business. Such actions may increase our cost of capital and limit or otherwise eliminate our access to capital, in which case our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

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In the event that any of our financial arrangements is terminated or is not renewed, or if the principal amount that may be drawn under our funding agreements that provide for immediate funding at closing were to significantly decrease, we may be unable to find replacement financing on commercially favorable terms, or at all, which could be detrimental to our business.

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We leverage our assets under credit and other financing agreements and utilize various other sources of borrowings, which exposes us to significant risk and may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We currently leverage and, to the extent available, we intend to continue to leverage the mortgage loans produced through our consumer and broker direct lending business and the government-insured loans acquired through our correspondent production activities from PMT with borrowings under repurchase agreements. When we enter into repurchase agreements, we sell mortgage loans to lenders, which are the repurchase agreement counterparties, and receive cash from the lenders. The lenders are obligated to resell the same assets back to us at the end of the term of the transaction. Because the cash that we receive from a lender when we initially sell the assets to that lender is less than the fair value of those assets (this difference is referred to as the haircut), if the lender defaults on its obligation to resell the same assets back to us we could incur a loss on the transaction equal to the amount of the haircut (assuming that there was no change in the fair value of the assets). In addition, repurchase agreements generally allow the counterparties, to varying degrees, to determine a new fair value of the collateral to reflect current market conditions. If a counterparty lender determines that the fair value of the collateral has decreased, it may initiate a margin call and require us to either post additional collateral to cover such decrease or repay a portion of the outstanding borrowing. Should this occur, in order to obtain cash to satisfy a margin call, we may be required to liquidate assets at a disadvantageous time, which could cause us to incur further losses. If we are unable to satisfy a margin call, our counterparty may sell the collateral, which may result in significant losses to us.

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In addition, we invest in certain assets, including MSRs and EBOs, for which financing has historically been difficult to obtain. We currently leverage certain of our MSRs and EBOs under secured financing arrangements. Our Fannie Mae MSRs are pledged to secure borrowings under a master repurchase agreement and our and Freddie Mac MSRs are pledged to secure borrowings under a loan and security agreement. Our Ginnie Mae MSRs and related excess servicing spread financing (“ESS”) are pledged to a special purpose entity, which issues variable funding notes and term notes that are secured by such Ginnie Mae assets and repaid through the cash flows received by the special purpose entity as the lender under a repurchase agreement with PLS. Some of our EBOs are contributed to a special purpose entity, which issues participation certificates pledged to secure borrowings under a master repurchase agreement.  In fiscal year 2020, we amended some master repurchase agreements to pledge other EBOs as an additional asset type under those agreements. In each case, similar to our repurchase agreements, the cash that we receive under these secured financing arrangements is less than the fair value of the assets and a decrease in the fair value of the pledged collateral can result in a margin call. Should a margin call occur, we may be required to liquidate assets at a disadvantageous time, which could cause us to incur further losses. If we are unable to satisfy a margin call, the secured parties may sell the collateral, which may result in significant losses to us.

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Each of the secured financing arrangements pursuant to which we finance MSRs and ESS is further subject to the terms of an acknowledgement agreement with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae, as applicable, pursuant to which our and the secured parties’ rights are subordinate in all respects to the rights of the applicable Agency. Accordingly, the exercise by any of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae of its rights under the applicable acknowledgment agreement could result in the extinguishment of our and the secured parties’ rights in the related collateral and result in significant losses to us.

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We may in the future utilize other sources of borrowings, including term loans, bank credit facilities and structured financing arrangements, among others. The amount of leverage we employ varies depending on the asset class being financed, our available capital, our ability to obtain and access financing arrangements with lenders and the lenders’ and rating agencies’ estimate of, among other things, the stability of our cash flows. We can provide no assurance that we will have access to any debt or equity capital on favorable terms or at the desired times, or at all. Our inability to raise such capital or obtain financing on favorable terms could materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our financing agreements contain restrictive covenants that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our various financing agreements require us and/or our subsidiaries to comply with various restrictive covenants, including those relating to tangible net worth, profitability and our ratio of total liabilities to tangible net worth. Incurring substantial debt subjects us to the risk that our cash flows from operations may be insufficient to repurchase the assets that we have sold under our repurchase agreements or otherwise service the debt incurred under our other financing agreements. Our lenders also require us to maintain minimum amounts of cash or cash equivalents sufficient to maintain a specified liquidity position. In addition, the repayment of the unsecured notes will depend in part on our restricted subsidiaries’ generation of cash flow and our restricted subsidiaries’ ability to make such cash available to us, by dividend, debt repayment or other means. The Unsecured Notes’ indenture contain additional restrictive covenants that limit our and our restricted subsidiaries’ ability to engage in specified types of transactions, including our ability and/or the ability of our restricted subsidiaries to:

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If we fail to comply with the restrictive covenants and are unable to obtain a waiver or amendment, an event of default would result under the terms of our financing arrangement or could limit our ability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms, or at all, for working capital and general corporate purposes.

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Our earnings may decrease because of changes in prevailing interest rates.

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Our profitability is directly affected by changes in prevailing interest rates. An increase in prevailing interest rates could:

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A decrease in prevailing interest rates could:

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An event of default, a negative ratings agency action, the perception of financial weakness, an adverse action by a regulatory authority, a lengthening of foreclosure timelines or a general deterioration in the economy that constricts the availability of credit may increase our cost of funds and make it difficult for us to refinance existing debt and borrow additional funds. In addition, we may not be able to adjust our operational capacity in a timely manner, or at all, in response to increases or decreases in mortgage production volume resulting from changes in prevailing interest rates. In addition, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve has enacted monetary policies to purchase MBS on the open market which could impact interest rates and the liquidity of the MBS market.

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Any of the increases or decreases discussed above could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We are subject to risks associated with the expected discontinuation of LIBOR.

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In July 2017, the head of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), which regulates the LIBOR administrator, announced the phase out of the use of LIBOR by the end of 2021. However, for U.S. dollar LIBOR, it now appears that the relevant date may be deferred to June 30, 2023 for the most common rates (overnight and one, three, six and 12 month­s). The LIBOR administrator has published a consultation regarding its intention to cease publication of U.S. dollar LIBOR as of June 30, 2023 (instead of December 31, 2021, as previously expected) based on continued rate submissions from banks. The FCA and other regulators have stated that they welcome the LIBOR administrator’s action. An extension to 2023 would mean that many legacy U.S. dollar LIBOR contracts would terminate before related LIBOR rates cease to be published. However, the same regulators emphasized that, despite any continued publication of U.S. dollar LIBOR through June 30, 2023, no new contracts using U.S. dollar LIBOR should be entered into after December 31, 2021. Moreover, the LIBOR administrator’s consultation also relates to the LIBOR administrator’s intention to cease publication of non-U.S. dollar LIBOR after December 31, 2021. There is no assurance that LIBOR will continue to be published until any particular date.

To identify a set of alternative interest reference rates to LIBOR, the U.S. Federal Reserve established the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”), a U.S. based working group composed of large U.S. financial institutions. ARRC has identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate as its preferred replacement for LIBOR, but it is unclear how their preference may impact the risks we maintain to the cessation of LIBOR, or if other benchmarks may emerge as a replacement for LIBOR.

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The expected and actual discontinuation of LIBOR could have a significant impact on the financial markets and our business activities. We rely on financing arrangements and liabilities under which our cost of borrowing is based on LIBOR. We also hold assets and instruments used to hedge the value of certain assets that depend for their value on LIBOR. We anticipate significant challenges as it relates to the transition away from LIBOR for all of our LIBOR-based assets, financing arrangements, and liabilities, regardless whether their maturity dates fall before or after the anticipated discontinuation date after December 31, 2021 or June 30, 2023, as applicable. These challenges will include, but will not be limited to, amending agreements underlying our existing and/or new LIBOR-based assets, financing arrangements, and liabilities with appropriate fallback language prior to the discontinuation of LIBOR, and the possibility that LIBOR may deteriorate as a viable benchmark to ensure a fair cost of funds for our LIBOR-linked liabilities, interest income for our LIBOR-linked assets, and/or the determination of fair value for certain of our assets and hedges using LIBOR as a benchmark rate or used to develop a market discount rate. In addition, the transition to using any new benchmark rate or other financial metric may require changes to existing transaction data, products, systems, models, operations and pricing processes.

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We also anticipate additional risks to our current business activities as they relate to the discontinuation of LIBOR. We service LIBOR-based adjustable rate mortgages (“ARMs”) for which the underlying mortgage notes incorporate fallback provisions, but we cannot anticipate the response of our borrowers or note holders to such risks. We also rely on financial models that incorporate LIBOR into their methodologies for financial valuation, planning and reporting.

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Due to these risks, we expect both the impending and actual discontinuation of LIBOR could materially affect our interest expense and earnings, our cost of capital, and the fair value of certain of our assets and the instruments we use to hedge their value. For the same reason, we also can provide no assurance that changes in the value of our hedge instruments will effectively offset changes in the value of the assets they are expected to hedge. Furthermore, the transition away from widely used benchmark rates like LIBOR could result in customers or other market participants challenging the determination of their interest payments, disputing the interpretations or implementation of contract “fallback” provisions and other transition related changes. Our inability to manage these risks effectively may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Hedging against interest rate exposure may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows.

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We pursue hedging strategies primarily in an effort to mitigate the effect of changes in interest rates on the fair value of our assets. To manage this price risk, we use derivative financial instruments acquired with the intention of moderating the risk that changes in market interest rates will result in unfavorable changes in the fair value of our assets, primarily prepayment exposure on our MSR investments as well as IRLCs and our inventory of loans held for sale. For example, with respect to our IRLCs and inventory of loans held for sale, we may use MBS forward sale contracts to lock in the price at which we will sell the mortgage loans or resulting MBS, and MBS put options to mitigate the risk of our IRLCs not closing at the rate we expect. In addition, with respect to our MSRs, we may use MBS forward purchase and sale contracts to address exposures to smaller interest rate shifts with Treasury and interest rate swap futures, and use options and swaptions to achieve target coverage levels for larger interest rate shocks.

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Our hedging activity will vary in scope based on the risks being mitigated, the level of interest rates, the type of investments held, and other changing market conditions such as those resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hedging instruments involve risk because they often are not traded on regulated exchanges, guaranteed by an exchange or its clearing house, or regulated by any U.S. or foreign governmental authorities, and our interest rate hedging may fail to protect or could adversely affect us because, among other things:

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In addition, we may fail to recalculate, re-adjust and execute hedges in an efficient manner. Any hedging activity, which is intended to limit losses, may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows. Therefore, while we may enter into such transactions seeking to reduce interest rate risk, unanticipated changes in interest rates may result in worse overall investment performance than if we had not engaged in any such hedging transactions. A liquid secondary market may not exist for a hedging instrument purchased or sold, and we may be required to maintain a position until exercise or expiration, which could result in significant losses. In addition, the degree of correlation between price movements of the instruments used in hedging strategies and price movements in the portfolio positions or liabilities being hedged may vary materially. Moreover, for a variety of reasons, we may not establish an effective correlation between such hedging instruments and the portfolio positions or liabilities being hedged. Any such ineffective correlation may prevent us from achieving the intended hedge and expose us to risk of loss. Numerous regulations currently apply to hedging and any new regulations or changes in existing regulations may significantly increase our administrative or compliance costs. Our derivative agreements generally provide for the daily mark to market of our hedge exposures. If a hedge counterparty determines that its exposure to us exceeds its exposure threshold, it may initiate a margin call and require us to post collateral. If we are unable to satisfy a margin call, we would be in default of our agreement, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We use estimates in determining the fair value of our MSRs, which are highly volatile assets with continually changing fair values. If our estimates of their value prove to be inaccurate, we may be required to write down the fair values of the MSRs which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our estimates of the fair value of our MSRs is based on the cash flows projected to result from the servicing of the related mortgage loans and continually fluctuates due to a number of factors. These factors include prepayment speeds, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other market conditions, which affect the number of loans that are repaid or refinanced and thus no longer result in cash flows, and the number of loans that become delinquent.

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We use internal financial models that utilize our understanding of inputs and assumptions used by market participants to value our MSRs for purposes of financial reporting and for purposes of determining the price that we pay for portfolios of MSRs and to acquire loans for which we will retain MSRs. These models are complex and use asset-specific collateral data and market inputs for interest and discount rates. In addition, the modeling requirements of MSRs are complex because of the high number of variables that drive cash flows associated with MSRs. Even if the general accuracy of our valuation models is validated, valuations are highly dependent upon the reasonableness of our inputs and the results of the models.

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If loan delinquencies or prepayment speeds are different than anticipated or other factors perform differently than modeled, the recorded value of certain of our MSRs may change. Significant differences in performance could increase the chance that we do not adequately estimate the impact of these factors on our valuations which could result in misstatements of our financial results, restatements of our financial statements, or otherwise materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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The geographic concentration of our servicing portfolio may be affected by weaker economic conditions or adverse events specific to certain regions which could decrease the fair value of our MSRs and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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A decline in the economy, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or other difficulties in certain real estate markets may cause a decline in the value of residential and commercial properties. To the extent that certain states in which we have greater concentrations of business in the future experience weaker economic conditions or greater rates of decline in real estate values than the United States generally, such concentration may disproportionately decrease the fair value of our MSRs and adversely affect our loan production businesses. The impact of property value declines may increase in magnitude and it may continue for a long period of time. Additionally, if states in which we have greater concentrations of business were to change their licensing or other regulatory requirements to make our business cost-prohibitive, we

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may be required to stop doing business in those states or may be subject to a higher cost of doing business in those states, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Increases in delinquencies and defaults may adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Delinquencies can result from many factors including unemployment, weak economic conditions or real estate values, or catastrophic events such as man-made or natural disasters, pandemic, war or terrorist attacks. A decrease in home prices may result in higher loan-to-value ratios (“LTVs”), lower recoveries in foreclosure and an increase in loss severities above those that would have been realized had property values remained the same or continued to increase. Some borrowers do not have sufficient equity in their homes to permit them to refinance their existing loans, which may reduce the volume or growth of our loan production business. This may also provide borrowers with an incentive to default on their mortgage loans even if they have the ability to make principal and interest payments. Further, despite recent increases, interest rates have remained near historical lows for an extended period of time.

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Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures may result in lower revenue for loans that we service for the Agencies because we only collect servicing fees from the Agencies for performing loans, and our failure to service delinquent and defaulted loans in accordance with the applicable servicing guidelines could result in our failure to benefit from available monetary incentives and/or expose us to monetary penalties and curtailments. Additionally, while increased delinquencies generate higher ancillary fees, including late fees, these fees are not likely to be recoverable in the event that the related loan is liquidated. In addition, an increase in delinquencies lowers the interest income that we receive on cash held in collection and other accounts because there is less cash in those accounts. Also, increased mortgage defaults may ultimately reduce the number of mortgages that we service.

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Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures will also result in a higher cost to service those loans due to the increased time and effort required to collect payments from delinquent borrowers and to acquire and liquidate the properties securing the loans or otherwise resolve loan defaults if payment collection is unsuccessful, and only a portion of these increased costs are recoverable under our servicing agreements. Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures may also result in an increase in servicing advances we are obligated to make to fulfill our obligations to MBS holders and to protect our investors’ interests in the properties securing the delinquent mortgage loans. An increase in required advances also may cause an increase in our interest expense and affect our liquidity as a result of increased borrowings under our financing agreements to fund any such increase in the advances.

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A disruption in the MBS market could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Most of the loans that we produce are pooled into MBS issued by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae. In addition, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve has enacted monetary policies to purchase MBS on the open market that has and may continue to impact the liquidity of the MBS market. Any significant disruption or period of illiquidity in the general MBS market would directly affect our own liquidity and the liquidity of PMT because no existing alternative secondary market would likely be willing and able to accommodate on a timely basis the volume of loans that we typically sell in any given period. Furthermore, we would remain contractually obligated to fund loans under our outstanding IRLCs without being able to sell our existing inventory of mortgage loans. Accordingly, if the MBS market experiences a period of illiquidity, we might be prevented from selling the loans that we produce into the secondary market in a timely manner or at favorable prices and we would be required to hold a larger inventory of loans than we have committed facilities to fund or we may be required to repay a portion of the debt secured by these assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We may be required to indemnify the purchasers of loans that we originate, acquire or assist in the fulfillment of, or repurchase those loans, if those loans fail to meet certain criteria or characteristics or under other circumstances.

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Our contracts with purchasers of newly originated loans that we fund through our consumer direct lending business or acquire from PMT through our correspondent production activities contain provisions that require us to

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indemnify the purchaser of the related loans or repurchase such loans under certain circumstances. Our loan sale agreements with purchasers, including the Agencies, contain provisions that generally require us to indemnify or repurchase these loans if our representations and warranties concerning loan quality and loan characteristics are inaccurate; or the loans fail to comply with the respective Agency’s underwriting or regulatory requirements.

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Repurchased loans typically can only be financed at a steep discount to their repurchase price, if at all. They are also typically valued and, therefore, can generally only be sold at a significant discount to the underlying UPBs. In certain cases involving mortgage lenders from whom loans were acquired through our correspondent production activities, we may have contractual rights to either recover some or all of our indemnification losses or otherwise demand repurchase of these loans. Depending on the volume of repurchase and indemnification requests, some of these mortgage lenders may not be able to financially fulfill their obligation to indemnify us or repurchase the affected loans. If a material amount of recovery cannot be obtained from these mortgage lenders, our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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Although our indemnification and repurchase exposure cannot be quantified with certainty, to recognize these potential indemnification and repurchase losses, we have recorded a liability of $32.7 million as of December 31, 2020. Because of the increase in our loan production over time, we expect that indemnification and repurchase requests are also likely to increase. Should home values decrease and negatively impact the related loan values, our realized loan losses from indemnifications and repurchases may increase as well. As such, our indemnification and repurchase costs may increase well beyond our current expectations. In addition, our mortgage banking services agreement with PMT requires us to indemnify it with respect to loans for which we provide fulfillment services in certain instances. If we are required to indemnify PMT or other purchasers against losses, or repurchase loans from PMT or other purchasers, that result in losses that exceed the recorded liability, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about borrowers and counterparties and any misrepresented information could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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In deciding whether to approve loans or to enter into other transactions across our businesses with borrowers and counterparties, including brokers, correspondent lenders and non-delegated correspondent lenders, we may rely on information furnished to us by or on behalf of borrowers and such counterparties, including financial statements and other financial information. We also may rely on representations of borrowers and such counterparties as to the accuracy and completeness of that information and, with respect to financial statements, on reports of independent auditors. If any of this information is intentionally or negligently misrepresented and such misrepresentation is not detected prior to loan funding, the fair value of the loan may be significantly lower than expected. Whether a misrepresentation is made by the loan applicant, another third party or one of our employees, we generally bear the risk of loss associated with the misrepresentation. Our controls and processes may not have detected or may not detect all misrepresented information in our loan originations or acquisitions. Any such misrepresented information could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our counterparties may terminate our MSRs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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As is standard in the industry, under the terms of our master servicing agreements with the Agencies in respect of Agency MSRs that we retain in connection with our loan production, the Agencies have the right to terminate us as servicer of the loans we service on their behalf at any time (and, in certain instances, without the payment of any termination fee) and also have the right to cause us to sell the MSRs to a third party. In addition, our failure to comply with applicable servicing guidelines could result in our termination under such master servicing agreements by the Agencies with little or no notice and without any compensation. The owners of other non-Agency loans that we service may also terminate certain of our MSRs if we fail to comply with applicable servicing guidelines. If the MSRs are terminated on a material portion of our servicing portfolio, our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be adversely affected.

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We are required to make servicing advances that can be subject to delays in recovery or may not be recoverable in certain circumstances, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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During any period in which a borrower is not making payments, we are required under most of our servicing agreements in respect of our MSRs to advance our own funds to pay property taxes and insurance premiums, legal expenses and other protective advances. We also advance funds under these agreements to maintain, repair and market real estate properties on behalf of investors. As home values change, we may have to reconsider certain of the assumptions underlying our decisions to make advances and, in certain situations, our contractual obligations may require us to make advances for which we may not be reimbursed. In addition, if a mortgage loan serviced by us is in default or becomes delinquent, the repayment to us of the advance may be delayed until the mortgage loan is repaid or refinanced or a liquidation occurs.

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Federal, state or local regulatory actions may increase the amount of servicing advances that we are required to make, lengthen the time it takes for us to be reimbursed for such advances and increase the costs incurred while the loan is delinquent. For example, the federal government enacted the CARES Act, which allows borrowers with federally-backed loans to request temporary payment forbearance in response to the increased borrower hardships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the CARES Act forbearance requirements, we have experienced elevated delinquencies in our servicing portfolio that may require us to finance substantial amounts of advances of principal and interest payments to the investors holding those loans, as well as advances of property taxes, insurance premiums and other expenses to protect investors’ interests in the properties securing the loans. In fiscal year 2020, elevated prepayment activity was sufficient to cover principal and interest payment advances due to the impact of the CARES Act; however, in the future prepayment activity may be insufficient to cover required principal and interest advances. Future servicing advances will be driven by the number of borrower delinquencies, including those resulting from payment forbearance; the amount of time borrowers remain delinquent; and the level of successful resolution of delinquent payments, all of which will be impacted by the pace at which the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of December 31, 2020, 7.2% of loans in UPB in our predominantly government-insured or guaranteed MSR portfolio were in forbearance plans and delinquent.

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A delay in our ability to collect advances may adversely affect our liquidity, and our inability to be reimbursed for advances could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations

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We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits of potential future acquisitions of MSRs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of potential future acquisitions of servicing portfolios will depend, in part, on our ability to appropriately service any such assets. The process of acquiring these assets may disrupt our business and may not result in the full benefits expected. The risks associated with these acquisitions include, among others, unanticipated issues in integrating information regarding the new loans to be serviced into our information technology systems, and the diversion of management’s attention from other ongoing business concerns. Moreover, if we inappropriately value the assets that we acquire or the fair value of the assets that we acquire declines after we acquire them, the resulting charges may negatively affect both the carrying value of the assets on our balance sheet and our earnings. Furthermore, if we incur additional indebtedness to finance an acquisition, the acquired servicing portfolio may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to service that additional indebtedness. Unsuitable or unsuccessful acquisitions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We are subject to significant financial and reputational risks from potential liability arising from lawsuits, and regulatory and government action.

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We face significant legal risks in our business, and the volume of claims and amount of damages, penalties and fines claimed in litigation, and regulatory and government proceedings against us and other financial institutions remains high. For example, in 2019 Black Knight Servicing Technologies, LLC filed a legal claim against us for alleged breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. Greater than expected investigation costs and litigation, including class action lawsuits associated with compliance related issues, substantial legal liability or significant regulatory or government action against us could have adverse effects on our financial condition and results of operations or cause significant reputational harm to us, which in turn could adversely impact our business results and prospects. We may experience a significant volume of litigation and other disputes, including claims for contractual indemnification, with counterparties regarding relative rights and responsibilities. Consumers, clients and other counterparties may also become increasingly litigious.

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We also may be exposed to the risk of litigation by investors in clients that we manage from time to time if our management advice is alleged to constitute gross negligence or willful misconduct. Investors could sue us to recover amounts lost by those entities due to our alleged misconduct, up to the entire amount of loss. Further, we may be subject to litigation arising from investor dissatisfaction with the performance of any such entities that we manage or from allegations that we improperly exercised control or influence over those entities. In addition, we are exposed to risks of litigation or investigation relating to transactions which presented conflicts of interest that were not properly addressed. In such actions, we would be obligated to bear legal, settlement and other costs (which may be in excess of available insurance coverage). In addition, although we are generally indemnified by the entities that we manage, our rights to indemnification may be challenged. If we are required to incur all or a portion of the costs arising out of litigation or investigations as a result of inadequate insurance proceeds or failure to obtain indemnification from the entities that we manage, our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

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We depend on counterparties and vendors to provide services that are critical to our business, which subjects us to a variety of risks.

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We have a number of counterparties and vendors, who provide us with financial, technology and other services that are critical to support our businesses. If our current counterparties and vendors were to stop providing services to us on acceptable terms or if we had a disruption in service due to a vendor dispute, we may be unable to procure alternative services from other counterparties or vendors in a timely and efficient manner and on similarly acceptable terms, or at all. Some of these counterparties and vendors have significant operations outside of the United States. If we or our vendors had to curtail or cease operations in these countries due to political unrest or natural disasters and then transfer some or all of these operations to another geographic area, we could experience disruptions in service and incur significant transition costs as well as higher future overhead costs. With respect to vendors engaged to perform certain servicing activities, we are required to assess their compliance with various regulations and establish procedures to provide reasonable assurance that the vendor’s activities comply in all material respects with such regulations. In the event that a vendor’s activities are not in compliance, it could negatively impact our relationships with our regulators, as well as our business and operations. Further, we may incur significant costs to resolve any such disruptions in service which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our failure to appropriately address various issues that may give rise to reputational risk could cause harm to our business and adversely affect our earnings.

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Our business is subject to significant reputational risks. If we fail, or appear to fail, to address various issues that may give rise to reputational risk, we could significantly harm our business prospects and earnings. Such issues include, but are not limited to, actual or perceived conflicts of interest, violations of legal or regulatory requirements, and any of the other risks discussed in this Item 1A. Similarly, market rumors and actual or perceived association with counterparties whose own reputations are under question could harm our business.

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Certain of our officers also serve as officers of PMT. As we expand the scope of our businesses, we increasingly confront potential conflicts of interest relating to investment activities that we manage for PMT. The SEC and certain regulators have increased their scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest, and as we experience growth in our businesses, we continue to monitor and mitigate or otherwise address any conflicts between our interests and those of PMT through the implementation of procedures and controls. Reputational risk incurred in connection with conflicts of interest could negatively affect our business, strain our working relationships with regulators and government agencies, expose us to litigation and regulatory action, impact our ability to attract and retain clients, customers, trading counterparties, investors and employees and adversely affect our results of operations.

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Reputational damage can result from our actual or alleged conduct in any number of activities, including lending and debt collection practices, corporate governance, and actions taken by government regulators and community organizations in response to those activities. Negative public opinion can also result from social media and media coverage, whether accurate or not. In addition, various private third party organizations have developed ratings processes for evaluating companies on their approach to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters. These third party ESG ratings may be used by some investors to assist with their investment and voting decisions. Any unfavorable ESG ratings may lead to reputational damage and negative sentiment among our investors and other stakeholders. These factors could impair our working relationships with government agencies and investors, expose us to litigation and regulatory action, negatively affect our ability to attract and retain customers, trading counterparties and employees, significantly harm our stock price and ability to raise capital, and adversely affect our results of operations.

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Accounting rules for certain of our transactions are highly complex and involve significant judgment and assumptions. Changes in accounting interpretations or assumptions could impact our financial statements.

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Accounting rules for mortgage loan sales and securitizations, valuations of financial instruments and MSRs, investment consolidations, income taxes and other aspects of our operations are highly complex and involve significant judgment and assumptions. These complexities could lead to a delay in preparation of financial information and the delivery of this information to our stockholders and also increase the risk of errors and restatements, as well as the cost of compliance. Changes in accounting interpretations or assumptions could impact our financial statements and our ability to timely prepare our financial statements. Our inability to timely prepare our financial statements in the future would likely be considered a breach of our financial covenants and adversely affect our share price significantly.

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The success and growth of our business depends upon our ability to adapt to and implement technological changes and to successfully develop, implement and protect proprietary technology.

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Our success in the mortgage industry is highly dependent upon our ability to adapt to constant technological changes, successfully enhance our current information technology solutions through the use of third-party and our proprietary technologies, and introduce new solutions and services that more efficiently address the needs of our customers.

Our mortgage loan production businesses are dependent upon our ability to effectively interface with our borrowers, mortgage lenders and other third parties and to efficiently process loan applications and closings. The direct lending processes are becoming more dependent upon technological advancement, such as our continued ability to process applications over the Internet, accept electronic signatures, provide process status updates instantly and other borrower- or counterparty-expected conveniences. In our correspondent production activities, our and PMT’s correspondent sellers also expect and require certain conveniences and service levels that are dependent on technological advancement. In this regard, we have recently transitioned to a workflow-driven, cloud-based loan acquisition platform. While we anticipate that the cloud-based system will increase scalability and produce other efficiencies, there can be no assurance that the cloud-based system will prove to be effective or that such correspondent sellers will easily adapt to the cloud-based system. Any failure to effectively or timely transition to our new system and meet our expectations and the expectations of our correspondent sellers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Similarly, our servicing business is dependent on our ability to effectively interface with our customers and investors, as well as service mortgage loans in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and the contractual requirements of such investors. For example, we have recently transitioned to a proprietary workflow-driven, cloud-

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based servicing system that provides for real-time processing and advanced workflow management thereby reducing servicing costs, increasing scalability and creating sustainable efficiencies.

We rely on a combination of trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, as well as confidentiality and contractual provisions to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technologies. In addition, we also license and utilize third party proprietary technologies and loss of rights to significant third party proprietary technologies may result in decreased product functionality. The development, implementation and protection of our intellectual property and proprietary technologies requires significant human resources and capital expenditures. As these technological advancements and investor and compliance requirements increase in the future, we will need to further develop these technological capabilities in order to remain competitive, and we will need to implement, execute and maintain them in an operating and regulatory environment that exposes us to significant risk. Moreover, litigation has become necessary to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technologies, and, such litigation is expected to be time consuming and result in substantial costs and diversion of resources.

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There is no assurance that we will be able to successfully adopt new technologies as critical systems and applications become obsolete and better ones become available. Any failure by us to develop, implement, integrate, execute or maintain our technological capabilities and any litigation costs associated with protection of our technologies could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We are subject to certain risks associated with investing in real estate and real estate related assets, including risks of loss from adverse weather conditions, man-made or natural disasters, pandemics, such as COVID-19, terrorist attacks and the effects of climate change and, which may cause disruptions in our operations and could materially and adversely affect the real estate industry generally and our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

Weather conditions and man-made or natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, pandemics, such as COVID-19, floods, droughts, fires and other environmental conditions can adversely impact properties that we own or that collateralize loans we own or service, as well as properties where we conduct business. Future adverse weather conditions and man-made or natural disasters could also adversely impact the demand for, and value of, our assets, as well as the cost to service or manage such assets, directly impact the value of our assets through damage, destruction or loss, and thereafter materially impact the availability or cost of insurance to protect against these events. Terrorist attacks and other acts of violence may cause disruptions in U.S. financial markets and negatively impact the U.S. economy in general.

Potentially adverse consequences of global warming and climate change, including rising sea levels and increased intensity of extreme weather events, could similarly have an impact on our properties and the local economies of certain areas in which we operate. Although we believe our owned real estate and the properties collateralizing our loan assets or underlying our MSR assets are appropriately covered by insurance, we cannot predict at this time if we or our borrowers will be able to obtain appropriate coverage at a reasonable cost in the future, or if we will be able to continue to pass along all of the costs of insurance. There also is a risk that one or more of our property insurers may not be able to fulfill their obligations with respect to claims payments due to a deterioration in its financial condition or may even cancel policies due to increasing costs of providing insurance coverage in certain geographic areas.

Certain types of losses, generally of a catastrophic nature, that result from events described above such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados, terrorism, acts of war and pandemics, such as COVID-19, may also be uninsurable or not economically insurable. Inflation, changes in building codes and ordinances, environmental considerations and other factors, including terrorism or acts of war, also might make the insurance proceeds insufficient to repair or replace a property if it is damaged or destroyed. Under these circumstances, the insurance proceeds received might not be adequate to restore our economic position with respect to the affected real property. Any uninsured loss could result in the loss of cash flow from, and the asset value of, the affected property, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Catastrophic events may disrupt our business.

We have a number of offices located throughout California and a growing regional presence in several other states across the United States. Our corporate headquarters is located in Westlake Village, California and we have additional locations around the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and elsewhere in the State of California. Many areas of California, including the immediate area around our corporate headquarters, have experienced extensive damage and property loss due to a series of large wildfires in the past several years. California and the other states in which we operate are also prone to other types of natural disasters. In the event of a major earthquake, hurricane, or catastrophic event such as fire, flood, power loss, telecommunications failure, cyber attack, pandemic, war, or terrorist attack, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure significant business interruptions, reputational harm, delays in servicing our customers and working with our partners, interruptions in the availability of our technology and systems, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results.

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Related Party Risks

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We rely on PMT as a significant source of financing for, and revenue related to, our mortgage banking business, and the termination of, or material adverse change in, the terms of this relationship, or a material adverse change to PMT or its operations, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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PMT is the counterparty that currently acquires all of the newly originated mortgage loans in connection with our correspondent production activities. A significant portion of our income is derived from a fulfillment fee earned in connection with PMT’s acquisition of conventional loans. We are able to conduct our correspondent production activities without having to incur the significant additional debt financing that would be required for us to purchase those loans from the originating lender. In the case of government-insured loans, we purchase them from PMT at PMT’s cost plus a sourcing fee and fulfill these loans for our own account and sell them, typically by pooling the federally insured or guaranteed loans together into an MBS which Ginnie Mae guarantees. We earn interest income and gains or losses during the holding period and upon the sale of these securities, and we retain the MSRs with respect to the loans. If this relationship with PMT is terminated by PMT or PMT reduces the volume of these loans that it acquires for any reason, we would have to acquire these loans from the correspondent sellers for our own account, something that we may be unable to do, or enter into another similar counterparty arrangement with a third party, which we may not be able to enter into on terms that are as favorable to us, or at all.

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The management agreement, the mortgage banking services agreement and certain of the other agreements that we have entered into with PMT contain cross-termination provisions that allow PMT to terminate one or more of those agreements under certain circumstances where another one of such agreements is terminated. Accordingly, the termination of this relationship with PMT, or a material change in the terms thereof that is adverse to us, would likely have a material adverse effect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. The terms of these agreements extend until June 30, 2025, subject to automatic renewal for additional 18-month periods, but any of the agreements may be terminated earlier under certain circumstances or otherwise non-renewed. If any agreement is terminated or non-renewed and not replaced by a new agreement, it would materially and adversely affect our ability to continue to execute our business plan.

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We expect that PMT will continue to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, it is possible that PMT may not meet the requirements for qualification as a REIT. If PMT were to lose its REIT status, corporate-level income taxes, would apply to all of PMT's taxable income at federal and state tax rates. Either of these scenarios would potentially impair PMT’s financial position and its ability to raise capital, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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A significant portion of our loan servicing operations are conducted pursuant to subservicing contracts with PMT, and any termination by PMT of these contracts, or a material change in the terms thereof that is adverse to us, would adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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PMT, as the owner of a substantial number of MSRs or mortgage loans that we subservice, may, under certain circumstances, terminate our subservicing contract with or without cause, in some instances with little notice and little to no compensation. Upon any such termination, it would be difficult to replace such a large volume of subservicing in a short period of time, or perhaps at all. Accordingly, we may not generate as much revenue from subservicing for other third parties. If we were to have our subservicing terminated by PMT, or if there was a change in the terms under which we perform subservicing for PMT that was material and adverse to us, this would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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PMT has an exclusive right to acquire the loans that are produced through our correspondent production activities, which may limit the revenues that we could otherwise earn in respect of those loans.

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Our mortgage banking services agreement with PMT requires PLS to provide fulfillment services for correspondent production activities exclusively to PMT as long as PMT has the legal and financial capacity to purchase correspondent loans. As a result, the revenue that we earn with respect to these loans will be limited to the fulfillment fees that we earn in connection with the production of these loans, which may be less than the revenues that we might otherwise be able to realize by acquiring these loans ourselves and selling them in the secondary loan market.

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Our financings of MSRs using excess servicing spread (“ESS”) exposes us to significant risks.

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We have previously sold to PMT or its subsidiaries, from time to time, the right to receive certain ESS arising from MSRs that we owned or acquired. The ESS represents the difference between our contractual servicing fee with the applicable Agency and the base servicing fee that we retain as compensation for servicing the related mortgage loans upon our sale of the ESS.

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As a condition of our sale of the ESS, PMT was required to subordinate its interests in the ESS to those of the applicable Agency. With respect to our Ginnie Mae MSRs, we pledged our interest in such MSRs and PMT’s interest in the related ESS to a special purpose entity, which issues variable funding notes and term notes that are secured by such Ginnie Mae assets and repaid through the cash flows received by the special purpose entity as the lender under a repurchase agreement with PLS. Accordingly, our interest in the Ginnie Mae MSRs and PMT’s interest in the related ESS are also subordinated to the rights of an indenture trustee on behalf of the note holders to which the special purpose entity issues its variable funding notes and term notes under an indenture, pursuant to which the indenture trustee has a blanket lien on all of our Ginnie Mae MSRs (including the ESS we sell to PMT and record as a financing).

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The indenture trustee, on behalf of the note holders, may liquidate our Ginnie Mae MSRs along with PMT’s interest in the ESS to the extent there exists an event of default under the indenture. In the event PMT’s ESS is liquidated as a result of certain of our actions or inactions, we generally would be required to indemnify PMT under the applicable spread acquisition agreement. A claim by PMT for the loss of its ESS as a result of our actions or inactions would likely be significant in size. Either of these occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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In connection with PLS’ repurchase agreement with the special purpose entity, we also provide pass through financing to PMT under a repurchase agreement to facilitate its financing of the ESS it acquires from us. The repurchase agreement subjects us to the credit risk of PMT. To the extent PMT defaults in its payments of principal and interest under its repurchase agreement with us, we would still be required to make the allocable and corresponding payments under our repurchase agreement with the special purpose entity. To the extent PMT fails to make such payments of principal and interest to us or otherwise defaults under its repurchase agreement and we are unable to make the allocable and corresponding payments under our repurchase agreement with the special purpose entity, this could also create an event of default that could cause a cross default under other financing arrangements and/or have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Risks Related to Our Investment Management Segment

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Market conditions could reduce the fair value of the assets that we manage, which would reduce our management and incentive fees.

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A portion of the fees that we earn under our investment management agreement is based on the fair value of the assets that we manage. The fair values of the securities and other assets held in the portfolios that we manage and, therefore, our assets under management may decline due to any number of factors beyond our control, including, among others, a decline in housing, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to interest rates, stock or bond market movements, a general economic downturn, political uncertainty or acts of terrorism. The economic outlook cannot be predicted with certainty and we continue to operate in a challenging business environment. If volatile market conditions cause a decline in the fair value of our assets under management, that decline in fair value could materially reduce our management fees and incentive fees under our management contract with PMT and adversely affect our revenues. If our revenues decline without a commensurate reduction in our expenses, our net income will be reduced.

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We currently manage assets for a single client, the loss of which could significantly reduce our management and incentive fees and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

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Our management and incentive fees result from our management of PMT. The term of the management agreement that we have entered into with PMT, as amended, expires on June 30, 2025, subject to automatic renewal for additional 18-month periods, unless terminated earlier in accordance with the terms of the agreement. In the event of a termination of one or more related party agreements by PMT in certain circumstances, we may be entitled to a termination fee under our management agreement. However, the termination of such management agreement and the loss of PMT as a client would significantly affect our investment management segment and negatively impact our management fees and incentive fees.

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The historical returns on the assets that we select and manage for PMT, and our resulting management and incentive fees, may not be indicative of future results.

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The historical returns of the assets that we manage should not be considered indicative of the future returns on those assets or future returns on other assets that we may select for investment by PMT. The investment performance that is achieved for the assets that we manage varies over time, and the nature and mix of assets we manage has changed significantly over the past several years. As a result, the change and variance in investment performance can be significant. Accordingly, the management and incentive fees that we have earned in the past based on those returns should not be considered indicative of the management or incentive fees that we may earn in the future from managing those same assets or from managing other assets for PMT.

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Changes in regulations applicable to our investment management segment could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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The legislative and regulatory environment in which we operate is constantly evolving. New laws or regulations, or changes in the enforcement of existing laws or regulations, applicable to us and PMT, may adversely affect our business. Our ability to succeed in this environment will depend on our ability to monitor and comply with regulatory changes. Regulatory changes that will affect other market participants are likely to change the way in which we conduct business with our counterparties. The uncertainty regarding the continued implementation of laws and regulations and their impact on the investment management industry and us cannot be predicted at this time but will continue to be a risk for our business.

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We may be adversely affected as a result of new or revised legislation or regulations imposed by the SEC, other U.S. or non-U.S. governmental regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations that supervise the financial markets. We also may be adversely affected by changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules by these governmental authorities and self-regulatory organizations, as well as by U.S. and non-U.S. courts. It is impossible to determine the extent of the impact of any new laws, regulations or initiatives that may be imposed on us or the markets in which we trade, or whether any of the proposals will become law. Compliance with any new laws or

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regulations could add to our compliance burden and costs and adversely affect the manner in which we conduct business, as well as our financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our failure to comply with the extensive amount of regulation applicable to our investment management segment could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Our investment management segment is subject to extensive regulation in the United States. These regulations are designed primarily to ensure the integrity of the financial markets and to protect investors in any entity that we advise and are not designed to protect our stockholders. Consequently, these regulations often serve to limit our activities. These requirements relate to, among other things, fiduciary duties to clients, solicitation agreements, conflicts of interest, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, disclosure requirements, limitations on Agency cross and principal transactions between an adviser and advisory clients and general anti-fraud prohibitions. We are required to maintain an effective compliance program, and are subject to routine periodic examinations by the staff of the SEC.

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The failure by us or our service providers to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or our failure to design and successfully implement and administer our compliance program, could result in fines, suspensions of individual employees or other sanctions, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations. Even if an investigation or proceeding did not result in a fine or sanction or the fine or sanction imposed against us or our employees by a regulator were small in monetary amount, the adverse publicity relating to an investigation, proceeding or imposition of these fines or sanctions could harm our reputation.

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We may encounter conflicts of interest in trying to appropriately allocate our time and services between activities for our own account and for PMT, or in trying to appropriately allocate investment opportunities among ourselves and for PMT.

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Pursuant to our management agreement with PMT, we are obligated to provide PMT with the services of our senior management team, and the members of that team are required to devote such time as is necessary and appropriate, commensurate with the level of activity of PMT. The members of our senior management team may have conflicts in allocating their time and services between our operations and the activities of PMT and any other entities or accounts that we may manage in the future.

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In addition, we and the other entities or accounts that we may manage may participate in some of PMT’s investments now or in the future, which may not be the result of arm’s length negotiations and may involve or later result in potential conflicts between our interests in the investments and those of PMT or such other entities. Any such perceived or actual conflicts of interest could damage our reputation and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure

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HC Partners may be able to significantly influence the outcome of votes of our common stock, or exercise certain other rights pursuant to a stockholder agreement we have entered into with it, and its interests may differ from those of our other public stockholders.

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HC Partners, one of our largest investors, has the right under a stockholder agreement to nominate one or two individuals for election to our board of directors depending on the percentage of the voting power of our outstanding shares common stock that it holds, and we are obligated to use our best efforts to cause the election of those director nominees. In addition, the HC Partners’ stockholder agreement requires that we obtain their consent with respect to amendments to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws. As a result, HC Partners may be able to significantly influence our management and affairs. In addition, as a result of the size of its individual equity holding it may be able to significantly influence the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval, including mergers and other material transactions, and may be able to cause or prevent a change in the composition of our board of directors or a change in control of our Company that could deprive our other public stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our common stock.

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We have not established a minimum dividend payment level and no assurance can be given that we will be able to make dividends to our stockholders in the future at current levels or at all.

In October 2019, we announced the initiation of a quarterly dividend for our common stockholders. We have not established a minimum dividend payment level, and our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders may be materially and adversely affected by the risk factors discussed in our SEC periodic reports. Although we paid, and anticipate continuing to pay, quarterly dividends to our stockholders, our board of directors has the sole discretion to determine the timing, form and amount of any future dividends to our stockholders, and such determination will depend upon, among other factors, our historical and projected results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and liquidity, capital requirements and other expense obligations, debt covenants, contractual legal, tax, regulatory and other restrictions and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant from time to time.

As a result, no assurance can be given that we will be able to continue to pay dividends to our stockholders in the future or that the level of any future dividends will achieve a market yield or increase or even be maintained over time, any of which could materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law might discourage or delay acquisition attempts for us that you might consider favorable.

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Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors. Among other things, these provisions:

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These and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company or negatively affect the trading price of our common stock. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of and take other corporate actions.

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Our bylaws include an exclusive forum provision that could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a judicial forum viewed by the stockholders as more favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees.

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Our bylaws provide that the state or federal court located within the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This exclusive forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other associates, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the exclusive forum provision contained in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Ownership of Our Common Stock

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The market price and trading volume of our common stock may be volatile, which could result in rapid and substantial losses for our stockholders.

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The market price and trading volume of our common stock has fluctuated significantly in the past and may be highly volatile in the future and could be subject to wide fluctuations. In addition, the trading volume in our common stock may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. Further, if the market price of our common stock declines significantly, you may be unable to resell your shares at or above your purchase price, if at all. Some of the factors that could negatively affect the market price or trading volume of our common stock include:

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These broad market and industry factors may decrease the market price and trading volume of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

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The market price of our common stock could be negatively affected by sales of substantial amounts of our common stock into the public trading market.

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PennyMac was founded in 2008 by members of our executive leadership team and two strategic investors, including HC Partners. Sales of substantial numbers of shares of our common stock into the public trading market by HC Partners, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional common stock or other equity securities.

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The future issuance of additional common stock in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions or otherwise will dilute all other stockholdings.

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As of December 31, 2020, we have an aggregate of 4.2 million shares of common stock authorized and remaining available for future issuance under our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan. We may issue all of these shares of common stock without any action or approval by our stockholders, subject to certain exceptions. We also intend to continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities and may issue common stock in connection with these acquisitions. Any common stock issued in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions, the exercise of outstanding stock options or otherwise would dilute the percentage ownership held by investors who purchase our common stock.

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Future offerings of debt or equity securities by us may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

In the future, we may attempt to obtain financing or further increase our capital resources by issuing additional shares of our common stock or offering debt or other equity securities, including commercial paper, medium-term notes, senior or subordinated notes, convertible debt securities or shares of preferred stock. The issuance of additional shares of our common stock or other equity securities or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of our existing stockholders or reduce the market price of our common stock or both. Upon liquidation, holders of such debt securities and preferred stock, if issued, and lenders with respect to other borrowings would receive a distribution of our available assets prior to the holders of our common stock. Debt securities convertible into equity

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could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred stock, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our common stock. Any issuance of securities in future offerings may reduce the market price of our common stock and dilute existing stockholders’ interests in us.

General Risks

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Our risk management efforts may not be effective.

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We could incur substantial losses and our business operations could be disrupted if we are unable to effectively identify, manage, monitor, and mitigate financial risks, such as credit risk, interest rate risk, prepayment risk, liquidity risk, and other market-related risks, as well as operational and legal risks related to our business, assets, and liabilities. We also are subject to various laws, regulations and rules that are not industry specific, including employment laws related to employee hiring and termination practices, health and safety laws, environmental laws and other federal, state and local laws, regulations and rules in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Our risk management policies, procedures, and techniques may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, mitigate the risks we have identified, or identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. Expansion of our business activities may also result in our being exposed to risks to which we have not previously been exposed or may increase our exposure to certain types of risks, and we may not effectively identify, manage, monitor, and mitigate these risks as our business activities change or increase.

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Initiating new business activities, developing new products or significantly expanding existing business activities may expose us to new risks and increase our cost of doing business.

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Initiating new business activities, developing new products, or significantly expanding existing business activities, such as our growth in broker direct and consumer direct lending and our significant increase in the number of employees in fiscal year 2020, are ways to grow our businesses and respond to changing circumstances in our industry; however, they may expose us to new risks and regulatory compliance requirements. We cannot be certain that we will be able to manage these risks and compliance requirements effectively. Furthermore, our efforts may not succeed, and any revenues we earn from any new or expanded business initiative may not be sufficient to offset the initial and ongoing costs of that initiative, which would result in a loss with respect to that initiative.

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We could be harmed by misconduct or fraud that is difficult to detect.

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We are exposed to risks relating to misconduct by our employees, contractors we use, or other third parties with whom we have relationships. For example, our employees could execute unauthorized transactions, use our assets improperly or without authorization, perform improper activities, use confidential information for improper purposes, or misrecord or otherwise try to hide improper activities from us. This type of misconduct could also relate to assets we manage for others through our investment advisory subsidiary, and can be difficult to detect. If not prevented or detected, misconduct by employees, contractors, or others could result in losses, claims or enforcement actions against us, or could seriously harm our reputation. Our controls may not be effective in detecting this type of activity.

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If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately determine our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial results, which could harm our business and the market value of our common stock.

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Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. We may in the future discover areas of our internal controls that need improvement. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) requires that we evaluate and report on our internal control over financial reporting. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in maintaining adequate control over our financial reporting and financial processes. In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges resulting from employees working remotely. Furthermore, as we rapidly grow our businesses, our internal controls will

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become more complex, and we will require significantly more resources to ensure our internal controls remain effective. Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires our auditors to formally attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

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If we cannot maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, or our independent registered public accounting firm cannot provide an unqualified attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investor confidence and, in turn, the market price of our common stock could decline. If we or our independent auditors discover a material weakness, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remedied, could result in an event of default under one or more of our lending arrangements and/or reduce the market value of shares of our common stock. Additionally, the existence of any material weakness or significant deficiency could require management to devote significant time and incur significant expense to remediate any such material weakness or significant deficiency, and management may not be able to remediate any such material weakness or significant deficiency in a timely manner, or at all. Accordingly, our failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in misstatements of our financial results or restatements of our financial statements or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Cybersecurity risks, cyber incidents and technology failures may adversely affect our business by causing a disruption to our operations, a compromise or corruption of our confidential information, and/or damage to our business relationships, all of which could negatively impact our financial results.

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A cyber incident is considered to be any adverse event that threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our information resources. These incidents may be an intentional attack or an unintentional event and could involve gaining unauthorized access to our information systems for purposes of theft of certain personally identifiable information of consumers, misappropriating assets, stealing confidential information, corrupting data or causing operational disruption. The result of these incidents may include disrupted operations, misstated or unreliable financial data, liability for stolen assets or information, increased cybersecurity protection and insurance costs, litigation and damage to our investor relationships.

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As our reliance on rapidly changing technology has increased, so have the risks posed to our information systems, both proprietary and those provided to us by third-party service providers including cloud-based computing service providers. System disruptions and failures caused by fire, power loss, telecommunications outages, unauthorized intrusion, computer viruses and disabling devices, natural disasters and other similar events may interrupt or delay our ability to provide services to our customers.

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Despite our efforts to ensure the integrity of our systems our investment in significant physical and technological security measures, employee training, contractual precautions and business continuity plans, and our implementation of policies and procedures designed to help mitigate cybersecurity risks and cyber intrusions, there can be no assurance that any such cyber intrusions will not occur or, if they do occur, that they will be adequately addressed. We also may not be able to anticipate or implement effective preventive measures against all security breaches, especially because the methods of attack change frequently or may not be recognized until after such attack has been launched, and because security attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources, including third parties such as persons involved with organized crime or associated with external service providers. We are also held accountable for the actions and inactions of our third-party vendors regarding cybersecurity and other consumer-related matters.

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Any of the foregoing events could result in violations of applicable privacy and other laws, financial loss to us or to our customers, loss of confidence in our security measures, customer dissatisfaction, additional regulatory scrutiny, significant litigation exposure and harm to our reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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The industry in which we operate is highly competitive, and is likely to become more competitive, and decreased margins resulting from increased competition or our inability to compete successfully could adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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We operate in a highly competitive industry that could become even more competitive as a result of economic, legislative, regulatory and technological changes. With respect to mortgage loan production, we face competition in such areas as mortgage loan offerings, rates, fees and customer service. With respect to servicing, we face competition in areas such as fees, cost to service and service levels, including our performance in reducing delinquencies and entering into successful modifications.

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Large commercial banks and savings institutions and other non-bank mortgage originators and servicers are increasingly competitive in the origination or acquisition of newly originated mortgage loans and the servicing of mortgage loans. Many of these institutions have significantly greater resources and access to capital and financing arrangements than we do, which may give them the benefit of a lower cost of funds. Additionally, our existing and potential competitors may decide to modify their business models to compete more directly with our loan production and servicing models. As more non-bank entities enter these markets and as more commercial banks aggressively compete, our mortgage banking businesses may generate lower volumes and/or margins. If we are unable to grow our loan production volumes or if our margins become compressed, then our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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In fiscal year 2020, we significantly increased the number of employees to facilitate our business growth and our future success will depend on our ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified personnel. Trained and experienced personnel are in high demand by our competitors and may be in short supply in some areas. In addition, we invest significant time and expense in training our employees, which increases their value to competitors who may seek to recruit them. If we are unable to attract and retain such personnel, we may not be able to take advantage of future growth opportunities and this could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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In addition, technological advances and heightened e-commerce activities have increased consumers’ access to products and services. This has intensified competition among banks and non-banks in offering and servicing mortgage loans. We may be unable to compete successfully in our mortgage banking businesses and this could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

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None.

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Item 2. Properties

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Our corporate offices are housed in 66,000 square feet of leased facilities, located at 3043 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village, California 91361 where we conduct executive management for all of our businesses and investment management activities.

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Our loan servicing operations are primarily housed in a 142,000 square foot leased facility located in Moorpark, CA, a 116,000 square foot facility in Fort Worth, TX and a 51,000 square foot facility in Summerlin, NV.

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Our consumer direct lending business occupies a 36,000 square foot leased facility in Pasadena, CA. Much of our loan processing activity is performed in a leased 81,000 square foot facility in close proximity to our corporate offices. We lease an additional 102,000 square feet in Plano, TX, 90,000 square feet in Tampa, FL, 75,000 square feet in Phoenix AZ and 30,000 square feet in St. Louis, MO primarily for our correspondent production activities. We have three loan production centers located in Roseville, CA, Honolulu, HI, Edina, MN, and one collocated in our Summerlin, NV office.

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Our information technology division is housed in a 50,000 square foot facility in Agoura Hills, CA and we lease a few small locations throughout the country, generally housing loan production and servicing activities.

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The financial commitments of our leases are disclosed in Note—10 Leases to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report.

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Item 3. Legal Proceedings

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From time to time, the Company may be involved in various legal and regulatory proceedings, lawsuits and other claims arising in the ordinary course of its business. The amount, if any, of ultimate liability with respect to such matters cannot be determined, but despite the inherent uncertainties of litigation, management currently believes that the ultimate disposition of any such proceedings and exposure will not have, individually or taken together, a material adverse effect on the financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows of the Company. Set forth below are material updates to legal proceedings of the Company.

On December 20, 2018, a purported shareholder of the Company filed a complaint in a putative class and derivative action in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (the “Delaware Court”), captioned Robert Garfield v. BlackRock Mortgage Ventures, LLC et al., Case No. 2018-0917-KSJM (the “Garfield Action”). The Garfield Action alleges, among other things, that certain current directors and officers of the Company breached their fiduciary duties to the Company and its shareholders by, among other things, agreeing to and entering into the Reorganization without ensuring that the Reorganization was entirely fair to the Company or public shareholders. The Reorganization was approved by 99.8% of voting shareholders on October 24, 2018. On December 19, 2019, the Delaware Court denied a motion to dismiss filed by the Company and certain of its directors and officers. While the Company and its co-defendants believe the Garfield Action is without merit and expressly disclaim any wrongdoing, they have collectively agreed to settle the Garfield Action for an amount equal to $6.85 million in order to avoid the ongoing costs of litigation and further distractions to their respective businesses. A settlement agreement was filed with the Delaware Court on October 9, 2020, and was approved on February 11, 2021. The Company’s share of the settlement amount will be paid entirely by one of the Company’s insurers.

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On November 5, 2019, Black Knight Servicing Technologies, LLC, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Black Knight, Inc. (“BKI”), filed a Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial in the Circuit Court for the Fourth Judicial Circuit in and for Duval County, Florida (the “Florida State Court”), captioned Black Knight Servicing Technologies, LLC v. PennyMac Loan Services, LLC, Case No. 2019-CA-007908 (the “BKI Complaint”). Allegations contained within the BKI Complaint include breach of contract and misappropriation of MSP® System trade secrets in order to develop an imitation mortgage-processing system intended to replace the MSP® System. The BKI Complaint seeks damages for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets, injunctive relief under the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act and declaratory judgment of ownership of all intellectual property and software developed by or on behalf of PLS as a result of its wrongful use of and access to the MSP® System and related trade secret and confidential information. On March 30, 2020, the Florida State Court granted a motion to compel arbitration filed by the Company. Consequently, on April 27, 2020, PennyMac dismissed its federal court action without prejudice to pursue those claims in arbitration as well. While no assurance can be provided at to the ultimate outcome of this claim or the account of any losses to the Company, the Company believes the BKI Complaint is without merit and plans to vigorously defend the matter, which remains pending.

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On January 7, 2021, PLS received a letter from the CFPB notifying PLS that, in accordance with the CFPB’s discretionary Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (“NORA”) process, the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement was considering recommending that the CFPB take legal action against PLS for alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and Truth in Lending Act. The CFPB's examination covered the period from March 2015 through September 2016. Should the CFPB commence an action, it may seek restitution, civil monetary penalties, injunctive relief, or other corrective action, the extent of which remains uncertain at this time. Notably, certain of the alleged violations were originally self-identified by PLS and remediated prior to the CFPB's examination, and all alleged violations were fully remediated as of August 2017. PLS confirmed these remediation actions as well as full restitution to any affected borrowers in its response to the NORA letter on February 08, 2021. While the NORA process remains open and pending at this time, and there can be no assurance as to the nature or extent of any actions taken by the CFPB with regard to these alleged violations, we do not believe that the ultimate resolution of this matter will have a material adverse effect on our financial statements or operations.

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Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

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Not applicable.

PART II

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Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

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Our shares of common stock are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: PFSI). As of February 22, 2021, our shares of common stock were held by 17 holders of record.

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We initiated a quarterly dividend for common stockholders in October 2019. The dividend level is reviewed each quarter and determined based on a number of factors, including, among other things, our earnings, our financial condition, growth outlook, the capital required to support ongoing growth opportunities and compliance with other internal and external requirements. Payments of dividends are subject to approval by our board of directors. Our ability to pay dividends may be adversely affected for the reasons described in Item 1A of this Report in the section entitled Risk Factors.

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Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

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There were no sales of unregistered equity securities during the year ended December 31, 2020.

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Repurchase of our Common Stock

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The following table summarized the stock repurchase activity for the quarter ended December 31, 2020:

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Item 6. Selected Financial Data

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Not presented.

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Critical Accounting Policies

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Preparation of financial statements in compliance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) requires us to make estimates that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Certain of these estimates significantly influence the portrayal of our financial condition and results, and they require us to make difficult, subjective or complex judgments. Our critical accounting policies primarily relate to our fair value estimates.

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Fair Value

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We group assets measured at or based on fair value in three levels based on the markets in which the assets are traded and the observability of the inputs used to determine fair value. These levels are:

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At December 31, 2020, $14.9 billion or 47% of our total assets were carried at fair value on a recurring basis and $12.2 million (real estate acquired in settlement of loans (“REO”)), were carried based on fair value on a non-recurring basis when fair value indicates evidence of impairment of individual properties.

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Changes in fair value of our holdings of assets carried at fair value have significant effects on our financial position and results of operations. As summarized above, changes in fair values of “Level 1” and “Level 2” fair value assets are determinable with reference to direct quotes in active markets on the measurement date in the case of “Level 1” assets, or reference to publicly available reference interest rates and credit spreads and prices of similar assets in the case of “Level 2” assets.

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$7.9 billion or 25% of our total assets are measured using “Level 3” fair value inputs – significant inputs where there is difficulty in observing the inputs used by market participants in establishing fair value. Different approaches to valuing those assets or changes in inputs to measurement of these assets can have a significant effect on the amounts reported for these items including their reported balances and their effects on our income.

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During the three years ended December 31, 2020, we recognized significant changes in the fair value of our holdings of “Level 3” fair value assets and liabilities as shown below:

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The changes above primarily reflect changes attributable to our observations of changes in the markets for those assets and liabilities as opposed to changes in accounting policies or approaches to the valuation of those instruments.

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As a result of the difficulty in observing certain significant valuation inputs affecting our “Level 3” fair value assets and liabilities, we are required to make judgments regarding these items’ fair values. Different persons in possession of the same facts may reasonably arrive at different conclusions as to the inputs to be applied in valuing these assets and liabilities and their fair values. Such differences may result in significantly different fair value measurements. Likewise, due to the general illiquidity of some of these assets, subsequent transactions may be at values significantly different from those reported.

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Because the fair value of “Level 3” fair value assets and liabilities are difficult to estimate, our valuation process includes performance of these items’ fair value estimation by specialized staff with significant senior management oversight. We have assigned the responsibility for estimating the fair values of non-interest rate lock commitment (“IRLC”) “Level 3” fair value assets and liabilities to our Financial Analysis and Valuation group (the “FAV group”), which is responsible for valuing and monitoring these items and maintenance of our valuation policies and procedures for non-IRLC assets and liabilities. The FAV group submits the results of its valuations to our senior management valuation committee, which oversees the valuations. Our senior management valuation committee includes the Company’s chief financial, investment and risk officers as well as other senior members of the Company’s finance, capital markets and risk management staffs.

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The fair value of our IRLCs is developed by our Capital Markets Risk Management staff and is reviewed by our Capital Markets Operations group.

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Following is a discussion of our approach to measuring the balance sheet items that are most affected by “Level 3” fair value estimates.

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Loans Held for Sale

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We carry loans at their fair values. We recognize changes in the fair value of loans in current period income as a component of Net gains on loans held for sale at fair value. How we estimate the fair value of loans is based on whether the loans are saleable into active markets with observable fair value inputs.

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We use a discounted cash flow model to estimate the fair value of “Level 3” fair value loans. The significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurement of our “Level 3” fair value loans held for sale are discount rates, home price projections and prepayment speeds. Significant changes in any of those inputs in isolation could result in a significant change to the loans’ fair value measurement.

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Interest Rate Lock Commitments

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Our net gains on loans held for sale include our estimates of the gains or losses we expect to realize upon the sale of loans we have contractually committed to fund or purchase but have not yet funded, purchased or sold. We recognize a substantial portion of our net gains on loans held for sale at fair value before we fund or purchase the loans as the result of these commitments. We call these commitments IRLCs. We recognize the fair value of IRLCs at the time we make the commitment to the correspondent seller, broker or loan applicant and adjust the fair value of such IRLCs as the loan approaches the point of funding or purchase or the prospective transaction is canceled.

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We carry IRLCs as either Derivative assets or Derivative liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet. The fair value of an IRLC is transferred to Loans held for sale at fair value when the loan is funded or purchased.

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An active, observable market for IRLCs does not exist. Therefore, we measure the fair value of IRLCs using methods we believe that market participants use in pricing IRLCs. We estimate the fair value of an IRLC based on observable Agency MBS prices, our estimates of the fair value of the MSRs we expect to receive in the sale of the loans and the probability that we will fund or purchase the loan (the “pull-through rate”).

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Pull-through rates and MSR fair values are based on our estimates as these inputs are difficult to observe in the marketplace. Our estimate of the probability that a loan will be funded and market interest rates are updated as the loans move through the funding or purchase process and as market interest rates change and may result in significant changes in our estimates of the fair value of the IRLCs. Such changes are reflected in the change in fair value of IRLCs which is a component of our Net gains on loans held for sale at fair value in the period of the change. The financial effects of changes in these inputs are generally inversely correlated. Increasing interest rates have a positive effect on the fair value of the MSR component of IRLC fair value but increase the pull-through rate for the loan principal and interest payment cash flow component, which decreases in fair value.

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A shift in our assessment of an input to the valuation of IRLCs can have a significant effect on the amount of Net gains on loans held for sale at fair value for the period. We believe that the most significant “Level 3” fair value input to the measurement of IRLCs is the pull-through rate. At December 31, 2020, we held $677.0 million of net IRLC assets at fair value. Following is a quantitative summary of the effect of changes in the pull-through rate input on the fair value of IRLCs at December 31, 2020:

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The preceding analysis holds constant all of the other inputs to show an estimate of the effect on fair value of a change in the pull-through rate. We expect that in a market shock event, multiple inputs would be affected and the effects of these changes may compound or counteract each other. Therefore the preceding analysis is not a projection of the effects of a shock event or a change in our estimate of an input and should not be relied upon as an earnings projection.

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Mortgage Servicing Rights

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MSRs represent the fair value assigned to contracts that obligate us to service the mortgage loans on behalf of the owners of the mortgage loans in exchange for servicing fees and the right to collect certain ancillary income from the borrower. We recognize MSRs at our estimate of the fair value of the contract to service the loans.

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We include changes in fair value of MSRs in current period income as a component of Net loan servicing fees—Change in fair value of mortgage servicing rights and mortgage servicing liabilities. Both our estimate of the change in fair value attributable to realization of cash flows and of the change in fair value are affected by changes in fair value inputs. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recognized a $1.5 billion net reduction in fair value of MSRs: $431.1 million of the reduction was due to realization of cash flows underlying the fair value of MSR and $1.1 billion of the reduction was due to changes in fair value inputs.

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We classify MSRs as “Level 3” fair value assets and determine their fair value using a discounted cash flow approach. We believe the most significant “Level 3” fair value inputs to the valuation of MSRs are the pricing spread (used to develop periodic discount rates), prepayment speed and annual per-loan cost of servicing.

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A shift in the market for MSRs or a change in our assessment of an input to the valuation of MSRs can have a significant effect on their fair value and in our income for the period. The fair value of MSRs that we held at December 31, 2020 was $2.6 billion.

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Following is a summary of the effect on fair value of MSRs of various changes to these key inputs at December 31, 2020:

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The preceding analyses hold constant all of the inputs other than the input that is being changed to show an estimate of the effect on fair value of a change in a specific input. We expect that in a market shock event, multiple inputs would be affected and the effects of these changes may compound or counteract each other. Therefore the preceding analyses are not projections of the effects of a shock event or a change in our estimate of an input and should not be relied upon as earnings projections.

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Excess Servicing Spread Financing

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We finance a portion of the cost of Agency MSRs that we purchase from non-affiliate sellers through the sale to PMT of the servicing spread in excess of a specified level. We carry our ESS at fair value.

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Because the ESS is a claim to a portion of the cash flows from MSRs, the valuation of the ESS is similar to that of MSRs. We use the same discounted cash flow approach to measure the ESS and the related MSRs except that certain inputs relating to the cost to service the mortgage loans underlying the MSRs and certain ancillary income are not included in the ESS valuation as these cash flows do not accrue to the holder of the ESS.

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A shift in the market for, or a change in our assessment of an input to, the valuation of ESS can have a significant effect on the fair value of ESS and in our income for the period. However, we believe that this change will be offset to a great extent by a change in the fair value of the MSRs that the ESS is financing. We record changes in the fair value of ESS in Net loan servicing fees—Change in fair value of excess servicing spread payable to PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded $25.0 million of net gains due to changes in fair value of ESS.

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We believe that the most significant “Level 3” fair value inputs to the valuation of ESS are the pricing spread (used to develop periodic discount rates) and prepayment speed. At December 31, 2020, we carried $131.8 million of ESS at fair value. Following is a summary of the effect on fair value of various changes to these inputs at December 31, 2020:

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The preceding analyses hold constant all of the inputs other than the input that is being changed to show an estimate of the effect on fair value of a change in that specific input. We expect that in a market shock event, multiple inputs would be affected and the effects of these changes may compound or counteract each other. Therefore the preceding analyses are not projections of the effects of a shock event or a change in our estimate of an input and should not be relied upon as earnings projections.

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Accounting Developments

Refer to Note 3 – Significant Accounting Policies ‒ Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements to our consolidated financial statements for a discussion of recent accounting developments and the expected effect on the Company.

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Results of Operations

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Our results of operations are summarized below: