loanDepot, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Loan Depot Inc. Q4 in 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nicole Carrero, Chief Accounting Officer at Loan Depot. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Lindsay. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first earnings call as a public company. Today we will discuss Loan Depot's fourth quarter and full year 2020 results. We are excited to share the financial information and other highlights of the quarter with you. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's operating and financial performance in future periods. These statements are based on the company's current expectations and available information. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to risks or other factors that are described in the risk factors sections of our filing with the SEC. On today's call, we have Loan Depot founder, chairman, and CEO Anthony Shea, our Chief Financial Officer Patrick Flanagan. They are going to provide an overview of the quarter as well as our financial and operational results. And to answer your questions, we're also going to be joined by Chief Capital Markets Officer Jeff DeGarian, our Chief Analytics Officer John Lee, and our Chief Revenue Officer Jeff Walsh. With that, I would like to turn it over to Anthony to get us started. Anthony?

Thank you, Nicole, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by thanking all of you for your interest in Loan Depot. It really is an honor to be newly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and we look forward to building long-term value for all of our stakeholders, including our new shareholders. I also want to thank Team Loan Depot, now 10,000 strong. The team has gone above and beyond during this unprecedented period, working remotely and remarkably, further improving their efficiency as consumer demand steadily grew during this time. I am proud of and humbled by the team's performance, their innovative spirit, and their commitment to the individuals and families that rely upon us each day. For our first earnings call as a public assets enabled us to respond to the unprecedented consumer demand in 2020 across all of our lines of business. And later on, our CFO, Pat Flanagan, will provide a deeper dive into the Q4 of full year 2020 numbers. As I mentioned, Lone People has a set of proprietary assets that deliver our financial results, but also enabled us to grow through all mortgage market cycles. Our diversified operating model is different from most others in the industry and allows us to drive volumes in all market conditions. This entails a combination of a retail strategy, including direct-to-consumer and in-market mortgage professionals, as well as a partner strategy consisting of a network of joint venture and referral partnerships. We have established relationships with key industry partners, including some of the largest home builders in the nation, real estate brokerage firms, and independent mortgage brokers. These strategies resulted in more than 50% growth in our purchase loan volume. That's three times faster than the market grew. And 170% growth in our refinance loan volume, more than 1.5 times faster than the market grew. This emphasis on purchase market growth has been a long-term focus of both our retail and partner strategies. During 2020, we achieved a number of new partnerships, notably including our joint venture with Brookfield Residential recently announced, adding to some of the best and largest home builders in the nation, including Meritage Homes, TriPoint Homes, and LGI. Today, Loan Depot currently is the largest new home builder lender in the country. This growth in both of our strategies across both purchase and refinance was powered by Mellow, our proprietary technology. Mellow powers our top of funnel prowess by utilizing predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to ensure our customers are quickly and intelligently routed across our diversified channel suite. and match with the right loan officer and the right product at the right price at the right time. Mellow powers additional operational efficiency throughout our customer's mortgage journey, which not only increases our customer satisfaction, but increases our profitability, decreases cost, and allows us to scale to meet consumer demand more efficiently. At Loan Depot, everything we do is centered upon helping our customers and making the mortgage journey as seamless and straightforward as possible. Our goal at Loan Depot is to ensure the customer wins. We know what customers want and expect the ease of bundle services in all aspects of their lives, including the home financing transaction. When, and I say when, not if, it makes sense for us to make acquisitions Our proprietary mellow technology and the way in which we approach data will ensure that we are able to integrate quickly with other platforms and origination models. Another key asset is Lone Depot's national brand. We are the second most recognized brand in the mortgage industry. We are focused on building additional brand strength through a combination of broad market and targeted campaigns to increase brand awareness and consideration. In addition to generating new customers, our positive brand strength allows us to retain more of our servicing customers and help drive repeat and referral business. When customers are in the market for their next loan, we want our brand awareness to drive high consideration for our products. Our ability to convert that customer is a key asset that Loan Depot possesses and is a major barrier to entry for others. Our mellow database of over 40 million unique individuals and almost 10 billion data points allows us to optimize lead, conversion, and better understand market and competitor performance. Our models give us the visibility to create strategies to take share from competitors and to maintain that share as market conditions change. We continue to invest in our brand through, among other things, our whole means everything national ad campaign. which has delivered more than 7 billion household impressions between May and December 2020. This significant reach is in addition to a monthly average of 1.6 million website visits and 330 million online media exposure during the fourth quarter of 2020. Our brand awareness is further poised to grow with our recently announced multi-year partnership agreement with Major League Baseball. partnering with the nation's preeminent sport league, a league which holds a special place in the hearts of American families, as our national pastime is a natural fit for us. Lone Depot is now the official mortgage provider of Major League Baseball, which further extends our brand reach and reinforces our brand promise with millions of fans across the country. We expect to continue to deploy these types of investments to expand Lone Depot's brand awareness and market presence. We should also note that Lone Depot is very focused on its various stakeholders across all communities in which we operate. During this order, we continue our tradition of serving our communities by supporting individuals and families impacted by COVID-19. as well as several key charitable organizations through a donation on behalf of our employees. The spirit of service, unity, and community from Team Loan Depot to our customers and to each other during this time of remote work is something truly special to see. I'm grateful and proud to work alongside what I believe to be the best team in the industry. We found the Loan Depot to transform the industry and to create intuitive, seamless experience designed to satisfy customers. Our strong results reflect our dedication to the customer experience and to our goal of fulfilling the dream of home ownership for individuals and families across the country. We are confident that our proprietary assets will enable us to continue our momentum, further grow our business, and enhance our position as an industry leader. regardless of shifts in the mortgage market as we move further ahead into 2021. I'd now like to turn things over to our CFO, Pat Flanagan, who will take you through our financial results in more detail.