During the company’s recent earnings call, Annaly announced that it had started to acquire non-QMs, as well as investment-property and second-home loans, on a conduit basis through its newly launched correspondent channel.

When asked about the advantages that come from opening the conduit, Fania said: “The launch of the correspondent channel allows you to face smaller originators. And the ability to lock best efforts allows you to own the economics of the loan at a much more accretive price than it would if you would participate in the bulk or mini-bulk market.”

Annaly CEO David Finkelstein added that the conduit is “providing certainty of execution to originators, which is a service that they value.”

Before this, Annaly’s non-QM loans were primarily sourced from aggregators, rather than directly from lenders.