MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call November 3, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Hal Schwartz - Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Craig Knutson - President and CEO

Steve Yarad - Chief Financial Officer

Bryan Wulfsohn - Co-Chief Investment Officer

Gudmundur Kristjansson - Co-Chief Investment Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mike Smith - KBW

Steve DeLaney - JMP Securities

Eric Hagen - BTIG

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MFA Financial, Inc. Third Quarter 2022 Conference.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we'll conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Hal Schwartz. Please go ahead.

Hal Schwartz

Thank you, operator and good morning everyone. The information discussed on this conference call today may contain or refer to forward looking statements regarding MFA Financial Inc., which reflect management's beliefs, expectations, and assumptions as to MFA's future performance and operations. When used statements that are not historical in nature, including those containing words such as will, believe, expect, anticipate, estimate, should, could, would, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made. These types of statements are subject to various known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, including those described in MFA's annual report on Form 10-K for the year end of December 31, 2021, and other reports that it may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause MFA's actual results to differ materially from those projected, expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements it makes. For additional information regarding MFA's use of forward looking statements. Please see the relevant disclosure in the press release announcing MFA's third quarter 2022 financial results.

Thank you for your time. I would now like to turn this call over to MFA's CEO and President, Craig Knutson.

Craig Knutson

Thank you, Hal. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us here today for MFA Financials' third quarter 2022 earnings call. Also with me today are Steve Yarad, our CFO; Gudmundur Kristjansson and Bryan Wulfsohn are Co-Chief Investment Officers and other members of senior management.

The third quarter of 2022 offered no respite from the extremely difficult prior two quarters and was another historically challenging period across all financial markets. Bond markets continued to be very volatile with rates backing up in the third quarter and agency mortgage spreads touching near all-time highs, not seen since the great financial crisis, which you'll recall in in 2008 for a time it was not certain that Fannie or Freddie credit was good.