New York Mortgage Trust, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. And welcome to the New York Mortgage Trust fourth quarter 2023 results conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. If you have a question, please press star followed by 11 on your touchtone phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. If you are using speaker equipment, we do ask that you please lift the handset for making a selection. This conference is being recorded on Thursday, February 22nd, 2024. I would now like to turn the call over to Christine Salem, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you all for joining New York Mortgage Trust's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. A press release and supplemental financial presentation with New York Mortgage Trust's fourth quarter 2023 results was released yesterday. Both the press release and supplemental financial presentation are available on the company's website at www.nymtrust.com. Additionally, we are hosting a live webcast of today's call, which you can access in the events and presentation section of the company's website. At this time, management would like me to inform you that certain statements made during the conference call, which are not historical, may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although New York Mortgage Trust believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are detailed in yesterday's press release and from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, at this time, I would like to introduce Jason Tirano, Chief Executive Officer. Jason, please go ahead.

Thanks, Christy. Welcome to New York Mortgage Fund's fourth quarter earnings call. Also joining me is our President Nick Ma, and our CFO, Christine Ario. After the Fed chair surprised Dovish's commentary late in the fourth quarter, much relief was immediately provided to the market in the form of lower medium-term rates. However, the market gave back much as relief after the latest CPI print, which was more than a two-standardization event for market expectations. With these gyrations, economists continued to update models with forecasts to predict the likelihood and timing of a soft landing or recession. Curiously, under extreme unbalanced sector gains in the U.S. equity markets, debate rages on about the ability of the U.S. economy to innovate its way through the hangover of a debt-fueled expansion. Our task is to determine how to prudently allocate capital against the potential long-term investment risk posed by slowing this economy. Our planning for this cycle was vastly completed last year. Now in 2024, we look forward to building the company's earnings base given a portfolio reshaped with lower credit risk and asset duration. A goal for today is to explain this evolution and why we believe our balance sheet is primed for growth through a dislocated market. We believe this cycle can provide significant value to the company, not just over 2024, but the remainder of the decade. For success, our team will need to reach deep into the multiple decades of investment experience in sourcing, valuation, and asset management execution. We are excited about the opportunity ahead of us. Starting with fourth quarter activity noted on page four of our Q4 supplemental, the company generated earnings per share of 35 cents or 37 cents on an undepreciated basis. Adjusted book value per share ended the quarter at $12.66 or down 2.09%. After 20 cent dividend, quarterly adjusted economic return was negative 54 basis points. Book value gains from our single family portfolio was largely offset by evaluation reductions to our multifamily joint venture equity After further dispositions, unrealized losses, and reclassifications of certain properties to held and used in the quarter, we have approximately $35 million remaining of capital allocated to JV multifamily equity that we intend to sell in the near term. Christine and Nick will provide additional details on this point a bit later. In setting up 2024, we enhanced our purchasing power by renewing and increasing warehouse line capacity to $2.2 billion, providing $1.6 billion of undrawn financing as of the fourth quarter. Additionally, to enhance liquidity, we issued our third BPL securitization in early January. Consistent with past deals issued by NYMT, the $225 billion securitization contains a revolver for future BPL acquisitions. Page 8 of our supplemental shows two important graphs that help shape our market view, starting with the U.S. deficit spending. which may have had a role in delaying economic contraction 2023. The CBO recently reported that the U.S. budget deficit is expected to total $1.6 trillion in 2024. Over the next 10 years, the budget gap will grow another $1 trillion. Remarkably, interest expenses expected to total over $1 trillion in this year alone. The consequence of high Treasury issuance to fund U.S. deficit spending could result in stubbornly high long-term rates. Even in the case, Yellen continues, to utilize a high allocation of short-term bills to fund the budget shortfall. To meet the liquidity needs of the U.S. government, global investment allocation to U.S. treasuries could be diverted from other sectors and tenors within those sectors. In this scenario, the CRE space is particularly vulnerable. Fresh liquidity is required to recapitalize $2.8 trillion of debt maturing over the next four years, half of which is held by banks. Banks' ability to offer CRE refinancing packages on one hand, while fending off CRE loss reserves on the other, is likely to further restrict lending in the market. The opportunity available for permanent capital vehicles with access to liquidity is great. For over a decade, our team has experienced generating opportunities in the multifamily bridge loan sector. Coupled with extensive asset management experience, New York Mortgage Trust platform can opportunistically navigate through the CRE dislocation on multiple fronts. We see a spillover effect constraining residential loan markets as well. Bridge loans and alternative financing for single family residential properties used for investment purposes is likely to be transformed into a new generation of lending. After 3.5 billion of residential bridge loans invested to date, our team has the experience to capitalize on the opportunity. As previously documented, Our approach to enhance company liquidity began in March 2022. We committed to curtailing investment activity, particularly in medium to long duration credit risk, in favor of a portfolio rebalancing to provide enhanced flexibility. In early 2023, we continued to prioritize increased liquidity over balance sheet growth in consideration of a potential slowing U.S. economy and increased market credit concerns. Later in 2023, we recognized a recession call was premature. Nevertheless, we remained concerned about a strain in market liquidity. Thus, we increased our portfolio exposure to agency RMBS to stabilize portfolio interest income. We are pleased to report that company adjusted interest income increased 22% quarter over quarter to $72.5 million. At the start of the fourth quarter, we added agency RMBS at attractive spreads. We also continue to add short-duration high-coupon residential property bridge loans, reversing a sequential quarter portfolio decline. With recent improvement to securitization market funding, we expect to meaningfully add detailed bridge loans throughout the year. With $431 million of dry powder available, not including capital allocated to the liquid agency RMBS sector, our balance sheet is structured for growth. We will continue to utilize a patient approach for portfolio growth. We believe this path will yield superior results not only this year, but has the potential to enhance results in the years ahead as trillions of dollars of maturing commercial real estate debt is sorted out. At this time, I'll pass the call over to Christine for additional comments on our financial results and then to Nick for portfolio manager discussion.