Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So those have historically led to more favorable execution outcomes that we would expect that to continue. Notwithstanding your point around the GV, just given where mission footprint is with the GSE is. We have often refinanced multi into our own term product, which we securitized. That tends to occur when the GSEs hit their caps, which they have annually as you know. We also can do that when a sponsor is stabilized and view it as more efficient to refinance private label, as opposed to waiting for a number of months of seasoning by the GSEs at certain stabilization levels. So, we do see opportunities like that. On the build for rent side, some of those are eligible for agency that depends upon how the property is partial. And then typically for single-family bridge stabilization strategies, it’s a win-win for us to be the takeout.

That’s a huge source of our term business, which we securitize, as our bridge book for sponsors refinance with us into a longer-term fixed rate.

Operator: Our next question comes from Derek Sommers with Jefferies. Please state your question.

Derek Sommers: Good afternoon, guys. With Wells exiting correspondent and some other smaller non-QM lenders hitting speed bumps, do you see that as more of a volume opportunity or a margin opportunity in the near term or a combination of both? And then just to tap into the capital allocation to the mortgage lending. I know you guys said you reduced it by 70% but how flexible is that capital allocation on the flip side on a quarter-to-quarter basis when you want to dial it back up? Thank you.

Christopher Abate: As I noted, I think it’s most fair to characterize the Wells exit as a long term opportunity frankly Wells in other money center banks remain very competitive on the retail side, on the branch side in mortgage. So, that piece of the puzzle hasn’t meaningfully changed. But I do think as things stabilize, it could be quite a game changer for us in particular. As far as the flexibility of the capital, I think it’s very, very flexible. I think we have put ourselves in a position where we can be very nimble with allocating capital. And we have got a workforce that’s pretty attuned to operating and investment capacity, as well as an issuance capacity. So moving the capital around and optimizing it is one of the hallmarks of the platform.

And I think what our goal is in residential mortgage banking is to preserve full optionality. We focused on variable costs. But as far as the integrity of the platform, the relationship of seller base, the technology, we continue to make investments in technology. All of that is something we focus on a day-to-day basis. So as far as leaning in again, we control the rate sheet. So, the points at which we feel comfortable from a risk standpoint, getting more aggressive? Well, I do think that, we need to see a little bit more here in the first quarter and potentially into the second quarter, to really get that that’s why we will turning as rapidly as we’d like. But like I also mentioned, we’ve got a lot of uses for the capital. And growing them right now is a big, big focus of ours.

Operator: And our next question comes from Doug Harter with Credit Suisse. Please state your question.

Doug Harter: Can you talk about, how long you think, kind of aggregation periods are now whether that’s to securitization or the whole loan sale? And kind of what you might be able to do to even shorten that time further, just kind of given the volatile period that we just went through?