RISK FACTORS

         Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before deciding whether to purchase shares of our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks are realized, our business, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Risks Related to Our Mortgage Banking Segment

Regulatory Risks

We operate in a highly regulated industry and the continually changing federal, state and local laws and regulation could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Due to the highly regulated nature of the residential mortgage industry, we are required to comply with a wide array of federal, state and local laws and regulations that regulate, among other things, the manner in which we conduct our loan production and servicing businesses and the fees that we may charge. These regulations directly impact our business and require constant compliance, monitoring and internal and external audits. A material failure to comply with any of these laws or regulations could subject us to lawsuits or governmental actions and damage our reputation, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Federal, state and local governments have recently proposed or enacted numerous new laws, regulations and rules related to mortgage loans. Laws, regulations, rules and judicial and administrative decisions relating to mortgage loans include those pertaining to real estate settlement procedures, equal credit opportunity, fair lending, fair credit reporting, truth in lending, fair debt collection practices, service members protections, compliance with net worth and financial statement delivery requirements, compliance with federal and state disclosure and licensing requirements, the establishment of maximum interest rates, finance charges and other charges, qualified mortgages, licensing of loan officers, loan officer compensation, secured transactions, payment processing, escrow, loss mitigation, collection, foreclosure, repossession and claims-handling procedures, and other trade practices and privacy regulations providing for the use and safeguarding of non-public personal financial information of borrowers. Service providers we use must also comply with these legal requirements, including outside foreclosure counsel retained to process foreclosures.

        In particular, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, or Dodd-Frank Act, represents a comprehensive overhaul of the financial services industry in the United States and includes, among other things (i) the creation of a Financial Stability Oversight Council to identify emerging systemic risks posed by financial firms, activities and practices, and to improve cooperation among federal agencies, (ii) the creation of the CFPB authorized to promulgate and enforce consumer protection regulations relating to financial products and services, including mortgage lending and servicing, (iii) the establishment of strengthened capital and prudential standards for banks and bank holding companies, (iv) enhanced regulation of financial markets, including the derivatives and securitization markets, and (v) amendments to the Truth in Lending Act, or TILA, aimed at improving consumer protections with respect to mortgage originations, including disclosures, originator compensation, minimum repayment standards, prepayment considerations appraisals and servicing requirements.

        Our failure to comply with these laws, regulations and rules may result in reduced payments by borrowers, modification of the original terms of mortgage loans, permanent forgiveness of debt, delays in the foreclosure process, increased servicing advances, litigation, enforcement actions, and repurchase

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and indemnification obligations. Our failure to adequately supervise service providers, including outside foreclosure counsel, may also have these negative results.

        The failure of the mortgage lenders from whom loans were acquired through our correspondent lending program to comply with these laws, regulations and rules may also result in these adverse consequences. We have in place a due diligence program designed to assess areas of risk with respect to these acquired loans, including, without limitation, compliance with underwriting guidelines and applicable law. However, we may not detect every violation of law by these mortgage lenders. While we have contractual rights to seek indemnity or repurchase from these correspondent lenders, if any of these lenders are unable to fulfill their indemnity or repurchase obligations to us to a material extent, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our repurchase agreements that provide us with capital to purchase loans for our correspondent lending business require us to make representations that the loans sold under these agreements comply with applicable law. See "Market Risks—We leverage our operations, which may materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations" on page 27 for a discussion of risks related to breaches of such representations.

        In addition, although they have not yet been enacted, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, proposed changes to mortgage servicing compensation structures in 2011 for servicing with GSEs, including reducing servicing fees and channeling funds toward reserve accounts for delinquent loans. Also, there continue to be changes in legislation, rulemaking and licensing in an effort to simplify the consumer mortgage experience which requires technology changes and additional implementation costs for loan originators. We expect that legislative and regulatory changes will continue in the foreseeable future, which may increase our operating expenses.

        Any of these, or other, changes in laws or regulations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The creation of the CFPB and its recently issued rules will likely increase our regulatory compliance burden and associated costs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        On July 21, 2011, the CFPB obtained rulemaking and enforcement authority pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act and began official operations. We are subject to examination by the CFPB. The CFPB has broad enforcement powers over mortgage participants, including originators and servicers, and can order, among other things, rescission or reformation of contracts, the refund of moneys or the return of real property, restitution, disgorgement or compensation for unjust enrichment, the payment of damages or other monetary relief, public notifications regarding violations, limits on activities or functions, and civil money penalties. The CFPB has been active in investigations and enforcement actions, and issued large civil money penalties in 2012.

        In addition to its regulatory authority, the CFPB has examination authority over all federal and state non-depository lending and servicing institutions, including mortgage brokers, lenders and servicers. Such examinations, as well as regulations that the CFPB might issue in the future, could ultimately increase our administrative burdens and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        In October 2011, January 2012 and October 2012, the CFPB issued guidelines governing, among other things, examination procedures for bank and non-bank mortgage servicers and originators and its procedures for supervising mortgage transactions. In January 2013, the CFPB issued its final rules relating to, among other things, its "Ability to Repay" rule under TILA's implementing Regulation Z, mortgage escrow account requirements and mortgage servicing requirements. For further discussion on the details of the CFPB's final rules, see "Business—Compliance and Regulatory."

        Similar to other mortgage servicers of our size, we received a general request for information from the CFPB on September 24, 2012. We responded in a timely fashion to the CFPB by providing the

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requested information. On February 11, 2013, we were notified by the CFPB that it would perform an examination of PLS's loan servicing and related compliance activities beginning on March 25, 2013. This examination is expected to last at least six weeks. The outcome of the CFPB's examination is uncertain. If, as a result of its examination, the CFPB were to conclude that PLS's loan servicing or related compliance activities violate applicable law, we may be subject to significant penalties or other punitive actions that could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. The CFPB also has the power to notify the public of violations which carries with it reputational risk. The results of CFPB examinations are shared with other regulators, which may in turn initiate their own investigations and impose additional penalties.

        The CFPB's recently enacted rules will likely increase our administrative and compliance costs. They could also greatly influence the availability and cost of residential mortgage credit, and increase servicing costs and risks. In addition, the effective dates for these new rules are aggressive in some cases and it may be difficult for us to implement the procedures necessary to comply with these new rules by the dates on which they are to become effective. These increased costs of compliance, the effect of these rules on the mortgage industry and mortgage servicing and any failure in our ability to comply with these new rules by their effective dates, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations.

We are highly dependent on U.S. government-sponsored entities, and any changes in these entities or their current roles could materially and adversely affect our business, liquidity, financial position and results of operations.

        Our ability to generate revenues through mortgage loan sales depends to a significant degree on programs administered by government-sponsored entities, or GSEs, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government agencies, including Ginnie Mae, and others that facilitate the issuance of mortgage-backed securities, or MBS, in the secondary market. These GSEs and Agencies play a critical role in the residential mortgage industry and we have significant business relationships with many of them. Presently, almost all of the newly originated conforming loans that we originate directly with borrowers or assist PMT in acquiring from mortgage lenders through our correspondent lending program qualify under existing standards for inclusion in mortgage securities backed by the GSEs or Ginnie Mae. We also derive other material financial benefits from these relationships, including the assumption of credit risk by these GSEs on loans included in such mortgage securities in exchange for our payment of guarantee fees and the ability to avoid certain loan inventory finance costs through streamlined loan funding and sale procedures.

        There is significant uncertainty regarding the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including with respect to how long they will continue to be in existence, the extent of their roles in the market and what forms they will have. Although the U.S. Treasury has committed capital to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since they were placed into conservatorship, additional funding may not be provided within the required time periods or the actions of the U.S. Treasury may not be adequate for their needs. If such funding is not provided as required, the FHFA would be obligated to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into receivership. Further, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac could be placed into receivership at the discretion of the FHFA at any time under certain circumstances. If the actions of the U.S. Treasury are inadequate or pending repurchase requests by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lenders prove unsuccessful, or if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adversely affected by events such as ratings downgrades, foreclosure problems and delays and problems with mortgage insurers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could continue to suffer losses and could fail to honor their guarantees and other obligations. In addition, the future roles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain uncertain. Their roles could be significantly reduced or eliminated and the nature of the guarantees could be considerably limited relative to historical measurements. Solvency concerns have also recently been raised regarding the FHA, which we rely on for the insurance of a significant portion of the government-insured loans

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that we produce. The elimination of the traditional roles of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the FHA could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

        Our ability to generate revenues from newly originated loans that we assist PMT in acquiring from mortgage lenders through our correspondent lending program is highly dependent on the fact that the GSEs have not historically acquired such loans directly from mortgage lenders, but have instead relied on banks and non-bank service providers such as us to acquire, aggregate and securitize or otherwise sell such loans to investors in the secondary market. If one or more of the GSEs were to start making these purchases and sales for their own accounts, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.

        Any discontinuation of, or significant reduction in, the operation of these GSEs or any significant adverse change in the level of activity of these GSEs in the primary or secondary mortgage markets or in the underwriting criteria of these GSEs could materially and adversely affect our business, liquidity, financial position and results of operations.

Changes in GSE guidelines or guarantees could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        We are required to follow specific guidelines that impact the way that we service and originate GSE loans, including guidelines with respect to:

•

credit standards for mortgage loans;



•

our staffing levels and other servicing practices;



•

the servicing and ancillary fees that we may charge;



•

our modification standards and procedures; and



•

the amount of non-reimbursable advances.

        In particular, the FHFA has directed the GSEs to align their guidelines for servicing delinquent mortgages that they own or that back securities which they guarantee, which can result in monetary incentives for servicers that perform well and penalties for those that do not. In addition, the FHFA has directed Fannie Mae to assess compensatory penalties against servicers in connection with the failure to meet specified timelines relating to delinquent loans and foreclosure proceedings, and other breaches of servicing obligations.

        We cannot negotiate these terms with the GSEs and they are subject to change at any time. A significant change in these guidelines that has the effect of decreasing the fees we charge or requires us to expend additional resources in providing mortgage services could decrease our revenues or increase our costs, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        In addition, changes in the nature or extent of the guarantees provided by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or the insurance provided by the FHA could also have broad adverse market implications. The guarantee fees that we are required to pay to the GSEs for these guarantees have increased significantly over time and any future increases in these fees would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Fannie Mae has indicated that it may impose annual delivery volume limits on all of its approved seller/servicers. Fannie Mae has not yet determined or announced the criteria for how these potential delivery limits may be calculated, or when they may be imposed. If a delivery limitation is imposed on PMT by Fannie Mae, it could result in a shift of business market share to Freddie Mac, and could adversely impact our gain on sale income to the extent that Freddie Mac price execution may be worse than that of Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac has indicated that it does not have any plans to establish delivery volume limits for its seller/servicers.

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Changes to government mortgage modification and refinance programs could adversely affect our future revenues and costs.

        Under HAMP and similar government programs, a participating servicer may be entitled to receive financial incentives in connection with any modification plans that it enters into with eligible borrowers and subsequent success fees to the extent that a borrower remains current in any agreed upon loan modification. While we participate in and dedicate numerous resources to HAMP, changes in legislation or regulation regarding HAMP or any other government mortgage modification program or changes in the requirements necessary to qualify for refinancing mortgage loans may impact the extent to which we participate in and receive financial benefits from such programs, or may increase our operating costs and the expense of our participation in such programs.

        On October 24, 2011, the FHFA announced changes to the existing Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, for certain loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to May 31, 2009. The changes to HARP are designed to increase the number of mortgage loans eligible for refinancing under the program and have meaningfully increased industry-wide loan production volumes. These changes and any additional changes that may be enacted to increase refinancing eligibility under this program will likely increase mortgage loan prepayment speeds, which would have an unfavorable impact on the valuation of our MSRs. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk."

        HAMP is currently scheduled to expire on December 31, 2013. If HAMP is not extended, this could decrease our revenues, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. HARP was set to expire on December 31, 2013, but recently, the FHFA extended HARP to December 31, 2015.

        Under the Making Home Affordable plan, or MHA, a participating servicer may receive a financial incentive to modify qualifying loans, in accordance with the plan's guidelines and requirements. HARP also allows us to refinance loans with an LTV of up to 125%. This program, and the FHA's negative equity refinance program, allow us to refinance loans to existing borrowers who have little or negative equity in their homes. The FHA's negative equity refinance program is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2014, and the expiration of that program or changes in legislation or regulations regarding that program or the MHA could reduce our volume of refinancing originations to borrowers with little or negative equity in their homes.

        Changes to HAMP, HARP, the MHA and other similar programs could adversely affect our future revenues and costs.

Unlike competitors that are banks, we are subject to the licensing and operational requirements of states and other jurisdictions that result in substantial compliance costs, and our business would be adversely affected if we lose our licenses.

        Because we are not a depository institution, we do not benefit from exemptions to state mortgage banking, loan servicing or debt collection licensing and regulatory requirements. We must comply with state licensing requirements and varying compliance requirements in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, and we are sensitive to regulatory changes that may increase our costs through stricter licensing laws, disclosure laws or increased fees or that may impose conditions to licensing that we or our personnel are unable to meet. Currently we are able to service loans in 49 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands and originate loans in 45 states and the District of Columbia, either because we are properly licensed in a particular jurisdiction or we are exempt or otherwise not required to be licensed in that jurisdiction.

        In most states in which we operate, a regulatory agency or agencies regulate and enforce laws relating to mortgage servicers and mortgage originators. These rules and regulations generally provide for licensing as a mortgage servicer, mortgage originator, loan modification processor/underwriter, or

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third-party debt default specialist (or a combination thereof), requirements as to the form and content of contracts and other documentation, licensing of our employees and independent contractors with whom we contract, and employee hiring background checks. They also set forth restrictions on collection practices and disclosure and record-keeping requirements, and they establish a variety of borrowers' rights. Future state legislation and changes in existing regulation may significantly increase our compliance costs or reduce the amount of ancillary fees, including late fees, that we may charge to borrowers. This could make our business cost-prohibitive in the affected state or states and could materially affect our business.

        In addition, we are subject to periodic examinations by state and other regulators, which can result in increases in our administrative costs and refunds to borrowers of certain fees earned by us, and we may be required to pay substantial penalties imposed by these regulators due to compliance errors, or we may lose our license. Fines and penalties incurred in one jurisdiction may cause investigations or other actions by regulators in other jurisdictions.

        We may not be able to maintain all currently requisite licenses and permits. In addition, the states that currently do not provide extensive regulation of our business may later choose to do so, and if such states so act, we may not be able to obtain or maintain all requisite licenses and permits. The failure to satisfy those and other regulatory requirements could result in a default under our servicing agreements and credit facilities and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Agency inquiries into foreclosure practices and foreclosure delays in certain states could result in additional compliance costs on our servicing business, and may adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition and business.

        In connection with allegations of irregularities in foreclosure processes, including so-called "robo-signing" by mortgage loan servicers, certain state Attorneys General, court administrators and government agencies, as well as representatives of the federal government, have issued letters of inquiry to mortgage servicers, requesting written responses to questions regarding policies and procedures, especially with respect to notarization and affidavit procedures. If initiated against us, these requests or any subsequent administrative, judicial or legislative actions taken by these regulators, court administrators or other government entities may subject us to fines and other sanctions, including a foreclosure moratorium or suspension. In addition to these inquiries, several state Attorneys General have requested that certain mortgage servicers suspend foreclosure proceedings pending internal review to ensure compliance with applicable law. Such inquiries, if initiated against us, as well as continued court backlog and emerging court processes, may cause an extended delay in the foreclosure process in certain states.

        Also, on February 9, 2012, federal and state agencies announced a $25 billion settlement with the five largest banks that resulted from investigations of foreclosure practices, which is referred to as the "Joint Federal-State Mortgage Servicing Settlement." As part of the settlement, the banks agreed to comply with various servicing standards relating to foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings, documentation of borrowers' account balances, chain of title, and evaluation of borrowers for loan modifications and short sales as well as servicing fees and the use of force-placed insurance.

        Although we are not a party to the above enforcement consent orders and settlements, we could be required to comply with certain requirements and terms set forth in the consent orders and settlements if (i) we subservice loans in certain circumstances for the mortgage servicers that are parties to the enforcement consent orders and settlements, (ii) the agencies begin to enforce the consent orders and settlements by looking downstream to our arrangement with certain mortgage servicers, (iii) the MSR owners for whom we subservice loans request that we comply with certain aspects of the consent orders and settlements, or (iv) we otherwise find it prudent to comply with certain aspects of the consent orders and settlements. In addition, the practices set forth in such

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consent orders and settlements may be adopted by the industry as a whole, forcing us to comply with them in order to follow standard industry practices, or may become required by our servicing agreements. While we have made and continue to make changes to our operating policies and procedures in light of the consent orders and settlements, further changes could be required and changes to our servicing practices may increase compliance and operating costs for our servicing business, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.

We may be subject to liability for potential violations of predatory lending laws, which could adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition and business.

        Various U.S. federal, state and local laws have been enacted that are designed to discourage predatory lending practices. The U.S. federal Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994, or HOEPA, prohibits inclusion of certain provisions in residential mortgage loans that have mortgage rates or origination costs in excess of prescribed levels and requires that borrowers be given certain disclosures prior to origination. Some states have enacted, or may enact, similar laws or regulations, which in some cases impose restrictions and requirements greater than those in HOEPA. In addition, under the anti-predatory lending laws of some states, the origination of certain residential mortgage loans, including loans that are not classified as "high-cost" loans under applicable law, must satisfy a net tangible benefits test with respect to the related borrower. This test may be highly subjective and open to interpretation. As a result, a court may determine that a residential mortgage loan, for example, does not meet the test even if the related originator reasonably believed that the test was satisfied. If any of our production loans are found to have been originated in violation of predatory or abusive lending laws, we could incur losses, which could adversely impact our results of operations, financial condition and business.

We may be subject to certain banking regulations that may limit our business activities.

        As of December 31, 2012, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., or PNC, owned approximately 21% of the outstanding voting common shares of BlackRock Inc. Based on PNC's interests in and relationships with BlackRock, Inc., BlackRock, Inc. is deemed to be a non-bank subsidiary of PNC. BlackRock, Inc. is an affiliate of BlackRock Mortgage Ventures, LLC, or BlackRock, which is one of our largest equity holders and which owns approximately one-third of our equity interests prior to this offering. Due to these relationships, we are deemed to be a non-bank subsidiary of PNC, which is regulated as a financial holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended. As a non-bank subsidiary of PNC, we may be subject to certain banking regulations, including the supervision and regulation of the Federal Reserve. Such banking regulations could limit the activities and the types of businesses that we may conduct. The Federal Reserve has broad enforcement authority over financial holding companies and their subsidiaries. The Federal Reserve could exercise its power to restrict PNC from having a non-bank subsidiary that is engaged in any activity that, in the Federal Reserve's opinion, is unauthorized or constitutes an unsafe or unsound business practice, and could exercise its power to restrict us from engaging in any such activity. The Federal Reserve may also impose substantial fines and other penalties for violations that we may commit. To the extent that we are subject to banking regulation, we could be at a competitive disadvantage because some of our competitors are not subject to these limitations.

        In addition, provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act referred to as the "Volcker Rule" place limitations on the ability of bank holding companies and their affiliates to engage in sponsoring, investing in and transacting with certain investment funds, including hedge funds and private equity funds (collectively "covered funds"). The Volcker Rule will also place restrictions on proprietary trading, which could impact certain hedging activities. It is expected that the Volcker Rule will apply to us by virtue of our affiliation with PNC through BlackRock. The Volcker Rule becomes fully effective in July 2014, but final implementing regulations have not yet been issued. To the extent the Volcker Rule applies to us, it would limit our ability to sponsor or manage covered funds and to make and retain investments in

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covered funds, and would limit investments in covered funds by our employees, among other restrictions. In addition, the scope of the definition of "covered funds" is not yet known, and therefore these restrictions could apply to funds other than those commonly referred to as hedge funds and private equity funds, such as one or more of the funds that we currently manage, including the Investment Funds or PMT. If the Investment Funds or PMT were to be "covered funds" as defined, then, among other consequences, certain transactions between us and the Advised Entities could be limited or required to be restructured. These limitations and restrictions could disadvantage us against those competitors that are not subject to the Volcker Rule in the ability to manage covered funds and to retain employees.

Market Risks

Our mortgage banking revenues are highly dependent on macroeconomic and United States residential real estate market conditions.

        Continuing concerns over factors including inflation, deflation, unemployment, personal and business income taxes, energy costs, geopolitical issues and the availability and cost of credit have contributed to increased volatility and unclear expectations for the economy in general and the residential real estate and mortgage markets in particular going forward. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, since 2006, United States residential housing values have declined by approximately 30% and the volume of newly originated mortgages has decreased by 50%. While national housing values have increased in the last 12 months, these conditions may not have stabilized or they may worsen. A destabilization of the residential real estate and mortgage markets or deterioration in these markets may reduce our loan production volume, reduce the profitability of servicing mortgages or adversely affect our ability to sell mortgage loans that we originate or acquire, either at a profit or at all. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to continue to grow our loan production volume, which could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Our loan production operations consist of our retail originations program, in which we originate mortgage loans directly with borrowers through telephone call centers or the Internet, and our correspondent lending program, in which we facilitate, in exchange for a fulfillment fee, the acquisition by PMT from correspondent sellers of newly originated mortgage loans that have been underwritten to our standards. In certain cases, we subsequently acquire those loans from PMT.

        Our correspondent lending program is relationship driven. We currently work with 140 approved mortgage lenders, but these lenders are not contractually obligated to do business with us or PMT, and our competitors also have relationships with these lenders and actively compete with us in our efforts to expand PMT's network of approved mortgage lenders. In order to increase our loan production volume, we will need to not only maintain PMT's existing relationships, but also develop PMT's relationships with additional mortgage lenders. To date, we have grown our loan production volumes with mortgage lenders by providing customer service and turn-around times in the execution of our fulfillment functions in accordance with the expectations of the mortgage lenders. If we are not able to consistently maintain this level of execution, our reputation and existing relationships with mortgage lenders could be damaged. We also plan to introduce new mortgage loan products such as Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector loans and enhanced jumbo loan products to mortgage lenders. We may not be able to maintain PMT's existing relationships or develop new relationships with mortgage lenders or our new mortgage products may not gain widespread acceptance.

        Our current volume of retail originations, which is based in large part on the refinancing of existing mortgage loans that we service, is highly dependent on interest rates and government mortgage modification programs and may decline if interest rates increase or these programs are terminated. Our

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retail originations platform may not succeed because of the referral-driven nature of our industry. For example, the origination of purchase money mortgage loans is greatly influenced by traditional business clients in the home buying process such as real estate agents and builders. As a result, our ability to secure relationships with such traditional business clients will influence our ability to grow our purchase money mortgage loan volume and, thus, our retail originations business. We may not be successful in establishing such relationships. In addition, to grow our retail originations business, we will need to convert leads regarding prospective borrowers into funded loans, the success of which depends on the pricing we offer relative to the pricing of our competitors and our operational ability to process, underwrite and close loans. Institutions that compete with us in this regard may have significantly greater access to capital or resources than we do, which may give them the benefit of a lower cost of operations.

        Our correspondent lending and retail origination businesses are also subject to overall market factors that can impact our ability to grow our loan production volume. For example, increased competition from new and existing market participants, reductions in the overall level of refinancing activity or slow growth in the level of new home purchase activity can impact our ability to continue to grow our loan production volume, and we may be forced to accept lower margins in our respective businesses in order to continue to compete and keep our volume of activity consistent with past or projected levels. We believe that changes in supply and demand within the marketplace have been driving lower margins in recent periods, which would be reflected in our results of operations and in our gains on mortgage loans held for sale. Although margins on gains from mortgage loans held for sale benefited from wider secondary spreads early in the fourth quarter of 2012, margins narrowed somewhat as the quarter progressed. While margins remained elevated from a historical perspective during the fourth quarter of 2012, we expect them to begin normalizing in 2013, and we have begun to see evidence of this normalization in the first quarter of 2013. If we are unable to grow our loan production volumes or if our margins become compressed, then our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our earnings may decrease because of changes in prevailing interest rates.

        Our profitability is directly affected by changes in prevailing interest rates. The following are the material risks we face related to changes in prevailing interest rates:

•

an increase in prevailing interest rates could adversely affect our loan production volume because refinancing an existing loan would be less attractive for homeowners and qualifying for a loan may be more difficult for consumers;



•

an increase in prevailing interest rates would increase the cost of servicing our outstanding debt, including debt related to servicing advances and loan production;



•

a decrease in prevailing interest rates may cause more borrowers to refinance existing loans that we service or may cause the expected volume of refinancings to increase, which would require us to record a higher level of amortization, impairment or both on our MSRs;



•

a decrease in prevailing interest rates could reduce our earnings from our custodial deposit accounts; and



•

an increase in prevailing interest rates could increase payments for servicing customers with adjustable rate mortgages and generate an increase in delinquency, default and foreclosure rates, resulting in an increase in our loan servicing expenses.

        Any adverse effect to our business, financial condition or results of operations as a result of changes in prevailing interest rates would be beyond our control.

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We may be unable to obtain sufficient capital and liquidity to meet the financing requirements of our business.

        We will require new and continued debt financing to facilitate our anticipated growth. Accordingly, our ability to finance our operations and repay maturing obligations rests in large part on our ability to borrow money. We are generally required to renew our financing arrangements each year, which exposes us to refinancing and interest rate risks. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources." Our ability to refinance existing debt and borrow additional funds is affected by a variety of factors including:

•

limitations imposed on us under our financing agreements that contain restrictive covenants and borrowing conditions, which may limit our ability to raise additional debt;



•

any decrease in liquidity in the credit markets;



•

prevailing interest rates;



•

the strength of the lenders from which we borrow, and the regulatory environment in which they operate, including proposed capital strengthening requirements;



•

limitations on borrowings on credit facilities imposed by the amount of eligible collateral pledged, which may be less than the borrowing capacity of the credit facility; and



•

accounting changes that may impact calculations of covenants in our debt agreements.

        If we are unable to obtain sufficient capital to meet the financing requirements of our business, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected.

We leverage our operations, which may materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

        We currently leverage and, to the extent available, we intend to continue to leverage our retail lending operations and our acquisitions of government-insured loans from PMT through borrowings under repurchase agreements. When we enter into repurchase agreements, we sell mortgage loans to lenders, which are the repurchase agreement counterparties, and receive cash from the lenders. The lenders are obligated to resell the same assets back to us at the end of the term of the transaction. The cash that we receive from a lender when we initially sell the assets to that lender is less than the value of those assets (this difference is referred to as the haircut), so if the lender defaults on its obligation to resell the same assets back to us we could incur a loss on the transaction equal to the amount of the haircut (assuming that there was no change in the value of the assets). In addition, repurchase agreements generally allow the counterparties, to varying degrees, to determine a new market value of the collateral to reflect current market conditions. If a counterparty lender determines that the value of the collateral has decreased, it may initiate a margin call and require us to either post additional collateral to cover such decrease or repay a portion of the outstanding borrowing. Should this occur, in order to obtain cash to satisfy a margin call, we may be required to liquidate assets at a disadvantageous time, which could cause us to incur further losses. If we are unable to satisfy a margin call, our counterparty may sell the collateral, which may result in significant losses to us.

        Unlike banks, we are not subject to regulatory restrictions on the amount of our leverage. Our total borrowings are only restricted by covenants in our repurchase agreements and market conditions, and our board of directors may change our target borrowing levels at any time without the approval of our stockholders. Incurring substantial debt subjects us to the risk that our cash flow from operations may be insufficient to repurchase the assets that we have sold to the lenders under our repurchase agreements.

        Our existing repurchase agreements also impose financial and non-financial covenants and restrictions on us that limit the amount of indebtedness that we may incur, impact our liquidity through minimum cash reserve requirements, and impact our flexibility to determine our operating policies and

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investment strategies. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources." In our repurchase agreements we make representations about the loans sold under these agreements, including that the loans were originated in compliance with applicable law. If we default on one of our obligations under a repurchase agreement or breach our representations, the lender may be able to terminate the transaction, accelerate any amounts outstanding, require us to repurchase the loans, and cease entering into any other repurchase transactions with us. Because our repurchase agreements typically contain cross-default provisions, a default that occurs under any one agreement could allow the lenders under our other agreements to also declare a default. Additional repurchase agreements or other bank credit facilities that we may enter into in the future may contain additional covenants and restrictions. If we fail to meet or satisfy any of these covenants, we would be in default under these agreements, and our lenders could elect to declare outstanding amounts due and payable, terminate their commitments, require the posting of additional collateral and enforce their interests against existing collateral. Any losses that we incur on our repurchase agreements could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Hedging against interest rate exposure may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows.

        We pursue hedging strategies to reduce our exposure to adverse changes in interest rates. Our hedging activity will vary in scope based on the risks hedged, the level of interest rates, the type of investments held, and other changing market conditions. Hedging instruments involve risk because they often are not traded on regulated exchanges, guaranteed by an exchange or its clearing house, or regulated by any U.S. or foreign governmental authorities, and our interest rate hedging may fail to protect or could adversely affect us because, among other things:

•

interest rate hedging can be expensive, particularly during periods of rising and volatile interest rates;



•

available interest rate hedging may not correspond directly with the interest rate risk for which protection is sought;



•

the duration of the hedge may not match the duration of the related liability or asset;



•

the credit quality of the hedging counterparty owing money on the hedge may be downgraded to such an extent that it impairs our ability to sell or assign our side of the hedging transaction; and



•

the hedging counterparty owing the money in the hedging transaction may default on its obligation to pay.

        In addition, we may fail to recalculate, re-adjust and execute hedges in an efficient manner.

        Any hedging activity, which is intended to limit losses, may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows. Therefore, while we may enter into such transactions seeking to reduce interest rate risk, unanticipated changes in interest rates may result in worse overall investment performance than if we had not engaged in any such hedging transactions. A liquid secondary market may not exist for a hedging instrument purchased or sold, and we may be required to maintain a position until exercise or expiration, which could result in significant losses. In addition, the degree of correlation between price movements of the instruments used in hedging strategies and price movements in the portfolio positions or liabilities being hedged may vary materially. Moreover, for a variety of reasons, we may not seek to establish a perfect correlation between such hedging instruments and the portfolio positions or liabilities being hedged. Any such imperfect correlation may prevent us from achieving the intended hedge and expose us to risk of loss. Numerous regulations currently apply to hedging and any new regulations or changes in existing regulations may significantly increase our

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administrative or compliance costs. Our hedging agreements generally provide for the daily mark to market of our hedge exposures. If a hedge counterparty determines that its exposure to us exceeds its exposure threshold, it may initiate a margin call and require us to post collateral. If we are unable to satisfy a margin call, we would be in default of our agreement, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our MSRs are highly volatile assets with continually changing values, and these changes in value, or inaccuracies in our estimates of their value, could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

        The value of our MSRs is based on the cash flows projected to result from the servicing of the related mortgage loans and continually fluctuates due to a number of factors. These factors include changes in interest rates and other market conditions, which affect the number of loans that are refinanced and thus no longer result in cash flows, and the number of loans that become delinquent.

        We use internal financial models that utilize market participant data to value our MSRs for purposes of financial reporting and for purposes of determining the price that we pay to acquire loans for which we will retain MSRs. These models are complex and use asset-specific collateral data and market inputs for interest and discount rates. In addition, the modeling requirements of MSRs are complex because of the high number of variables that drive cash flows associated with MSRs. Even if the general accuracy of our valuation models is validated, valuations are highly dependent upon the reasonableness of our assumptions and the results of the models.

        If loan delinquencies or prepayment speeds are higher than anticipated or other factors perform worse than modeled, the recorded value of certain of our MSRs may decrease, which would adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Increases in delinquencies and defaults may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Falling home prices across the United States have resulted in higher loan-to-value ratios, or LTVs, lower recoveries in foreclosure and an increase in loss severities above those that would have been realized had property values remained the same or continued to increase. Though housing values have stabilized in some markets, many borrowers do not have sufficient equity in their homes to permit them to refinance their existing loans, which may reduce the volume or growth of our loan production business. This may also provide borrowers with an incentive to default on their mortgage loans even if they have the ability to make principal and interest payments. Further, interest rates have remained at historical lows for an extended period of time. Borrowers with adjustable rate mortgage loans must make larger monthly payments when the interest rates on those mortgage loans adjust upward from their initial fixed rates or low introductory rates to the rates computed in accordance with the applicable index and margin. Increases in monthly payments may increase the delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures on a significant number of the loans that we service.

        Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures may result in lower revenue for loans that we service for the GSEs, such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, because we only collect servicing fees from GSEs for performing loans. Additionally, while increased delinquencies generate higher ancillary fees, including late fees, these fees are not likely to be recoverable in the event that the related loan is liquidated. In addition, an increase in delinquencies lowers the interest income that we receive on cash held in collection and other accounts because there is less cash in those accounts. Also, increased mortgage defaults may ultimately reduce the number of mortgages that we service.

        Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures will also result in a higher cost to service those loans due to the increased time and effort required to collect payments from delinquent borrowers and to liquidate properties or otherwise resolve loan defaults if payment collection is

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unsuccessful, and only a portion of these increased costs are recoverable under our servicing agreements. Increased mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures may also result in an increase in our interest expense and affect our liquidity as a result of borrowing under our credit facilities to fund an increase in our advancing obligations.

A disruption in the MBS market could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        During 2012, approximately 60% of the loans that we produced were delivered to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to be pooled into Agency MBS securities and 39% of our loans were originated to FHA guidelines and pooled into Ginnie Mae MBS securities. Disruptions in the general MBS market have occurred in the past. Any significant disruption or period of illiquidity in the general MBS market would directly affect our own liquidity and the liquidity of PMT because no existing alternative secondary market would likely be able to accommodate on a timely basis the volume of loans that we typically sell in any given period. Accordingly, if the MBS market experiences a period of illiquidity, we might be prevented from selling the loans that we produce into the secondary market in a timely manner or at favorable prices, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The geographic concentration of our servicing portfolio may decrease the value of our MSRs and adversely affect our retail lending business, which would adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

        As of December 31, 2012, approximately 38%, 5% and 5% of the aggregate outstanding loan balance in our servicing portfolio was secured by properties located in California, Florida and Colorado, respectively. These states have experienced severe declines in property values and are experiencing a disproportionately high rate of delinquencies and foreclosures relative to other states. To the extent that these states continue to experience weaker economic conditions or greater rates of decline in real estate values than the United States generally, the concentration of loans that we service in those regions may decrease the value of our MSRs and adversely affect our retail lending business. The impact of property value declines may increase in magnitude and it may continue for a long period of time. Additionally, if states in which we have greater concentrations of business were to change their licensing or other regulatory requirements to make our business cost-prohibitive, we may be required to stop doing business in those states or may be subject to higher cost of doing business in those states, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Related Party Risks

We rely on PMT as a significant source of financing for, and revenue related to, our correspondent lending business, and the termination of, or material adverse change in, the terms of this relationship, or a material adverse change to PMT or its operations, would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        PMT is the counterparty that currently acquires all of the newly originated mortgage loans in connection with our correspondent lending businesses. A significant portion of our income is derived from a fulfillment fee earned in connection with PMT's acquisition of conventional loans. We are able to conduct our correspondent lending business without having to incur the significant additional debt financing that would be required for us to purchase those loans from the originating lender. In the case of government-insured loans, we purchase them from PMT at PMT's cost plus a sourcing fee and fulfill them for our own account, typically by pooling the federally insured or guaranteed loans together into an MBS which Ginnie Mae guarantees. We earn interest income and gains or losses during the holding period and upon the sale of these securities, and we retain the MSRs with respect to the loans. If this relationship with PMT was terminated by PMT or PMT reduced the volume of these loans that it

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acquires for any reason, we would have to acquire these loans from the correspondent sellers for our own account, something that we may be unable to do, or enter into another similar counterparty arrangement with a third party, which we may not be able to enter into on terms that are as favorable to us, or at all. Also, the management agreement, the mortgage banking and warehouse services agreement and certain of the other agreements that we have entered into with PMT contain cross-termination provisions that allow PMT to terminate one or more of those agreements under certain circumstances where another one of such agreements is terminated. Accordingly, the termination of this relationship with PMT, or a material change in the terms thereof that is adverse to us, would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        We expect that PMT will continue to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, it is possible that PMT may not meet the requirements for qualification as a REIT. If PMT were to lose its REIT status, corporate-level income tax, including any applicable alternative minimum tax, would apply to PMT's taxable income at regular corporate rates, thereby potentially impairing PMT's financial position and its ability to raise capital. Consequently, PMT's failure to qualify as a REIT could impair PMT's ability to continue to acquire loans from correspondent sellers.

A significant portion of our loan servicing operations are conducted pursuant to subservicing contracts with PMT, and any termination by PMT of these contracts, or a material change in the terms thereof that is adverse to us, would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        PMT, as the owner of a substantial number of all of the MSRs or whole loans that we subservice, may, under certain circumstances, terminate our subservicing contract with or without cause, in some instances with little notice and little to no compensation. Upon any such termination, it would be difficult to replace such a large volume of subservicing in a short period of time, or perhaps at all. Accordingly, we may not generate as much revenue from subservicing for other third parties. If we were to have our subservicing terminated by PMT, or if there was a change in the terms under which we perform subservicing for PMT that was materially adverse to us, this would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

PMT has an exclusive right to acquire the loans that are produced through our correspondent lending program, which may limit the revenues that we could otherwise earn in respect of those loans.

        Our mortgage banking and warehouse services agreement with PMT requires PLS to provide fulfillment services for correspondent lending activities exclusively to PMT as long as PMT has the legal and financial capacity to purchase correspondent loans. As a result, unless PMT sells some of these loans back to us, the revenue that we earn with respect to these loans will be limited to the fulfillment fees that we earn in connection with the production of these loans, which may be less than the revenues that we might otherwise be able to realize by acquiring these loans ourselves and selling them in the secondary loan market.

Other Risks

We may be required to indemnify the purchasers of loans that we originate, acquire or assist in the fulfillment of, or repurchase those loans, if those loans fail to meet certain criteria or characteristics or under other circumstances.

        Our contracts with purchasers of newly originated loans that we fund through our retail lending program or acquire from PMT contain provisions that require us to indemnify the purchaser of the related loans or repurchase those loans under certain circumstances. In addition, our contracts with PMT and the Investment Funds require us to indemnify those entities with respect to loans for which we provide fulfillment services or repurchase those loans in certain instances. While our contracts vary,

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they generally contain provisions that require us to indemnify these parties, or repurchase these loans, if:

•

our representations and warranties concerning loan quality and loan characteristics are inaccurate; or



•

the loans fail to comply with underwriting or regulatory requirements in the current dynamic regulatory environment.

        We believe that, as a result of the current market environment, many purchasers of residential mortgage loans, including the GSEs, are particularly aware of the conditions under which loan originators or sellers must indemnify them against losses related to purchased loans, or repurchase those loans, and would benefit from enforcing any repurchase remedies they may have. Our loan sale agreements with purchasers, including the GSEs, include provisions permitting purchasers to demand that we indemnify them for losses suffered in connection with loans sold that were originated in violation of applicable law or with other defects or demand repurchase of such loans. Repurchased loans typically can only be financed at a steep discount to their repurchase price, if at all. They are also typically sold at a significant discount to the unpaid principal balance. In certain cases, we would have contractual rights to recover from the mortgage lenders from whom loans were acquired through our correspondent lending program some or all of the amount paid by us in connection with this indemnification, or contractual rights to cause these mortgage lenders to repurchase these loans from us. Depending on the volume of repurchase and indemnification requests, some of these mortgage lenders may not be able to financially fulfill their obligation to indemnify us or repurchase loans from us. If a material amount of recovery cannot be obtained from these mortgage lenders, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Although this exposure cannot be quantified with certainty, to recognize these potential indemnification and repurchase losses, we have recorded a liability of $3.5 million as of December 31, 2012. Because of the increase in our loan originations since 2010, we expect that indemnification and repurchase requests are likely to increase. Should home values decrease, our realized loan losses from loan indemnifications and repurchases may increase as well. As such, our indemnification and repurchase costs may increase beyond our current expectations. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Gain on Mortgage Loans Held for Sale." If we are required to indemnify PMT, the Investment Funds or other purchasers against loans, or repurchase loans, that result in losses that exceed our reserve, this could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on the accuracy and completeness of information about borrowers and counterparties and any misrepresented information could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        In deciding whether to approve loans or to enter into other transactions with borrowers and counterparties in our retail lending and correspondent lending businesses, we may rely on information furnished to us by or on behalf of borrowers and counterparties, including financial statements and other financial information. We also may rely on representations of borrowers and counterparties as to the accuracy and completeness of that information and, with respect to financial statements, on reports of independent auditors. If any of this information is intentionally or negligently misrepresented and such misrepresentation is not detected prior to loan funding, the value of the loan may be significantly lower than expected. Whether a misrepresentation is made by the loan applicant, another third party or one of our employees, we generally bear the risk of loss associated with the misrepresentation. Our controls and processes may not have detected or may not detect all misrepresented information in our loan originations or from our business clients. Any such misrepresented information could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The industry in which we operate is highly competitive, and is likely to become more competitive, and our inability to compete successfully or decreased margins resulting from increased competition could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        We operate in a highly competitive industry that could become even more competitive as a result of economic, legislative, regulatory and technological changes. With respect to mortgage loan production, we face competition in such areas as mortgage loan offerings, rates, fees and customer service. With respect to servicing, we face competition in areas such as fees, performance in reducing delinquencies and entering into successful modifications.

        Competition in servicing mortgage loans and in originating or acquiring newly originated mortgage loans comes from large commercial banks and savings institutions and other independent mortgage servicers and originators. Many of these institutions generally have significantly greater resources and access to capital than we do, which gives them the benefit of a lower cost of funds. Additionally, our existing and potential competitors may decide to modify their business models to compete more directly with our loan production and servicing models. For example, other non-bank loan servicers may try to leverage their servicing relationships and expertise to develop or expand a loan origination business. Since the withdrawal of a number of large participants from these markets following the financial crisis in 2008, there have been relatively few large non-bank participants. As more non-bank entities enter these markets, our mortgage banking businesses may generate lower margins in order to effectively compete.

        In addition, technological advances and heightened e-commerce activities have increased consumers' accessibility to products and services. This has intensified competition among banks and non-banks in offering mortgage loans. We may be unable to compete successfully in our industries and this could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are required to make servicing advances that can be subject to delays in recovery or may not be recoverable in certain circumstances, which could adversely affect our liquidity, business, financial condition and results of operations.

        During any period in which a borrower is not making payments, we are required under most of our servicing agreements in respect of our MSRs to advance our own funds to meet contractual principal and interest remittance requirements for investors, pay property taxes and insurance premiums, legal expenses and other protective advances. We also advance funds under these agreements to maintain, repair and market real estate properties on behalf of investors. As home values change, we may have to reconsider certain of the assumptions underlying our decisions to make advances and, in certain situations, our contractual obligations may require us to make advances for which we may not be reimbursed. In addition, if a mortgage loan serviced by us is in default or becomes delinquent, the repayment to us of the advance may be delayed until the mortgage loan is repaid or refinanced or a liquidation occurs. If we receive requests for advances in excess of amounts that we are able to secure from our advance credit facility or, in the case of loans that we subservice, from the owner of the MSRs and loans, we may not be able to fund these advance requests, which could materially and adversely affect our loan servicing business. A delay in our ability to collect an advance may adversely affect our liquidity, and our inability to be reimbursed for an advance could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our counterparties may terminate our servicing rights, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        The owners of the loans that we service may terminate our MSRs if we fail to comply with applicable servicing guidelines. As is standard in the industry, under the terms of our master servicing agreements with the Agencies in respect of MSRs that we retain in connection with our retail loan originations, the Agencies have the right to terminate us as servicer of the loans we service on their

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behalf at any time (and, in certain instances, without the payment of any termination fee) and also have the right to cause us to sell the MSRs to a third party. In addition, the failure to comply with servicing standards could result in termination of our agreements with the Agencies with little or no notice and without any compensation. If the servicing rights were terminated on a material portion of our servicing portfolio, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Negative public opinion involving Countrywide Financial Corporation and certain of its former officers could damage our reputation and adversely affect our earnings.

        Certain of our executive officers are former executive officers and senior managers of Countrywide, which has been the subject of various investigations and lawsuits and ongoing negative publicity. Such executive officers include:

        Stanford Kurland, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, who served as a director and, from January 1979 to September 2006, was employed in a variety of positions, including president, chief financial officer and chief operating officer, at Countrywide Financial Corporation;

        David Spector, our President and Chief Operating Officer, who was the senior managing director, secondary marketing, at Countrywide Financial Corporation, where he was employed in a variety of positions from May 1990 to August 2006;

        Steve Bailey, our Chief Servicing Officer, who served as a mortgage servicing executive at Countrywide Financial Corporation (and Bank of America Corporation, as its successor) from November 2004 until February 2010 and, prior to this role, served as chief executive officer of Loan Administration for Countrywide Home Loans from May 1985 until June 2008;

        Vandad Fartaj, our Chief Capital Markets Officer, who was employed in a variety of positions at Countrywide Securities Corporation, a broker-dealer, including vice president, whole loan trading, from November 1999 to April 2008;

        Douglas Jones, our Chief Correspondent Lending Officer, who was the senior managing director, correspondent lending at Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (and Bank of America Corporation, as its successor) from July 1997 until May 2011;

        Anne McCallion, our Chief Financial Officer, who was employed by Countrywide Financial Corporation (and Bank of America Corporation, as its successor), where she worked in a variety of positions, from July 1991 to December 2008, including deputy chief financial officer and senior managing director, finance; and

        David Walker, our Chief Credit Officer , who, from 1992 to 2007, was employed in a variety of executive positions at Countrywide Bank, N.A. and its subsidiaries, including chief credit officer for Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and chief lending officer for Countrywide Bank, N.A.

        Any existing or future investigations, litigation or negative publicity involving Countrywide, or our officers as a result of their former association with that entity, may generate negative publicity or media attention for us or adversely impact our business.

        Reputation risk, or the risk to our business, earnings and capital from negative public opinion, is inherent in our business. Negative public opinion can result from our actual or alleged conduct in any number of activities, including lending and debt collection practices, corporate governance, and actions taken by government regulators and community organizations in response to those activities. Negative public opinion can also result from media coverage, whether accurate or not. Negative public opinion or perception can tarnish or otherwise strain our working relationships with regulators and government agencies, expose us to litigation and regulatory action and adversely affect our ability to attract and retain customers, trading counterparties and employees.

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Challenges to the MERS® System could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

        MERSCORP, Inc. is a privately held company that maintains an electronic registry, referred to as the MERS System that tracks servicing rights and ownership of loans in the United States. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., or MERS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MERSCORP, Inc., can serve as a nominee for the owner of a mortgage loan and in that role initiate foreclosures or become the mortgagee of record for the loan in local land records. We may choose to use MERS as a nominee. The MERS System is widely used by participants in the mortgage finance industry.

        Several legal challenges in the courts and by governmental authorities have been made disputing MERS's legal standing to initiate foreclosures or act as nominee for lenders in mortgages and deeds of trust recorded in local land records. These challenges have focused public attention on MERS and on how loans are recorded in local land records. Although most legal decisions have accepted MERS as mortgagee, these challenges could result in delays and additional costs in commencing, prosecuting and completing foreclosure proceedings, conducting foreclosure sales of mortgaged properties, and submitting proofs of claim in borrower bankruptcy cases.

We may not realize all of the anticipated benefits of potential future acquisitions of MSRs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of potential future acquisitions of servicing portfolios will depend, in part, on our ability to scale up to appropriately service any such assets. The process of acquiring these assets may disrupt our business and may not result in the full benefits expected. The risks associated with these acquisitions include, among others, unanticipated issues in integrating information regarding the new loans to be serviced into our information technology systems, and the diversion of management's attention from other ongoing business concerns. Moreover, if we inappropriately value the assets that we acquire or the value of the assets that we acquire declines after we acquire them, the resulting charges may negatively affect the carrying value of the assets on our balance sheet and our earnings. See "—Our MSRs are highly volatile assets with continually changing values, and these changes in value, or inaccuracies in our estimates of their value, could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations." If our estimates or assumptions prove to be incorrect, we may be required to record impairment charges, which could adversely affect our earnings. Furthermore, if we incur additional indebtedness to finance an acquisition, the acquired servicing portfolio may not be able to generate sufficient cash flow to service that additional indebtedness. Unsuitable or unsuccessful acquisitions could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our prime servicing portfolio, which consists primarily of recently originated loans, has a limited performance history, which makes our future results of operations more difficult to predict.

        The likelihood of mortgage delinquencies and defaults, and the associated risks to our business, including higher costs to service such loans and a greater risk that we may incur losses due to repurchase or indemnification demands, changes as loans season, or increase in age. Newly originated loans typically exhibit low delinquency and default rates as the changes in economic conditions, individual financial circumstances and other factors that drive borrower delinquency often do not appear for months or years. Highly seasoned loan portfolios, in which borrowers have demonstrated years of performance on their mortgage payments, also tend to exhibit low delinquency and default rates. Most of the loans in our prime servicing portfolio were originated in the years 2010, 2011, and 2012. As a result, we expect the delinquency rate and defaults in the prime servicing portfolio to increase in future periods as the portfolio seasons, but we cannot predict the magnitude of this impact on our results of operations. In addition, because most of the loans in our portfolios are newly

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originated, it may be difficult to compare our business to our competitors and others that have weathered the economic difficulties in our industry over the last several years.

Risks Related to our Investment Management Segment

Market conditions could reduce the value of the assets that we manage, which would reduce our management and incentive fees.

        Volatile market conditions could adversely affect our investment management segment in many ways, including by reducing the value of our assets under management, which could materially reduce our management fee and incentive fee revenues and adversely affect our financial condition. A significant portion of the fees that we earn under our investment management agreements with clients are based on the value of the assets that we manage. The prices of the securities and other assets held in the portfolios that we manage and, therefore, our assets under management may decline due to any number of factors beyond our control, including, among others, a declining housing, stock or bond market, a general economic downturn, political uncertainty or acts of terrorism. The economic outlook remains uncertain and we continue to operate in a challenging business environment. If market conditions cause a decline in the value of the assets that we manage, that decline in value would result in lower management fees and potentially lower incentive fees resulting from reduced performance under our management contracts with our Advised Entities. If our revenues decline without a commensurate reduction in our expenses, our net income will be reduced and our business will be negatively affected.

The historical returns on the assets that we select and manage for our clients, and our resulting management and incentive fees, may not be indicative of future results.

        The historical returns of the assets that we manage should not be considered indicative of the future returns on those assets or future returns on other assets that we may select for investment by our Advised Entities. The investment performance that is achieved for the assets that we manage varies over time and the variance can be wide. Accordingly, the management and incentive fees that we have earned in the past based on those returns should not be considered indicative of the management or incentive fees that we may earn in the future from managing those same assets or from managing other assets for our Advised Entities. A decline in the investment performance of our managed assets will also adversely affect our ability to attract and retain clients.

We currently, and in the future may, manage assets for a small number of clients, the loss of any one of which could significantly reduce our management and incentive fees and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

        We currently manage the assets of only the Advised Entities, and the majority of our management and incentive fees result from our management of PMT. Although the management contract that we have entered into with PMT cannot be terminated without cause, other than pursuant to cross-termination provisions contained in other agreements that we have entered into with PMT, prior to February 1, 2017 without the payment of a termination fee, the termination of such contract and the loss of PMT as a client would significantly affect our investment management segment and negatively impact our management fees, and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Also, because the management agreements we have entered into with the Investment Funds were negotiated between related parties without the benefit of the type of negotiations normally conducted with unaffiliated third parties, the terms of these agreements, including the fees payable to us, may prove to be more favorable to us than they would be if these agreements had been negotiated with unaffiliated third parties. Accordingly, we may not generate as much revenue from management agreements that we enter into with other third parties. In addition, the Investment Funds are limited-life funds that were established in 2008 with commitment periods that

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ended in 2011 and terms that end in December 2016 with the possibility of three one-year extensions. Accordingly, base fees generated by the Investment Funds will continue to decline as the assets under management run-off.

Our failure to obtain consent of the Advised Entities in connection with certain dispositions by BlackRock and Highfields may cause us to breach agreements and lose management and incentive fees earned from such Advised Entities.

        Because PCM is registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, which we refer to as the "Advisers Act," the management agreements between us and the Advised Entities would be terminated upon an "assignment" of these agreements without consent, which assignment may be deemed to occur in the event that PCM was to experience a direct or indirect change of control. Because BlackRock and Highfields may be deemed to control us, a significant disposition by either of them of their interest in us could trigger an "assignment." We cannot be certain that consents required to assignments of our investment management agreements will be obtained if a change of control occurs. "Assignment" of these agreements without consent could cause us to lose the management and incentive fees we earn from such Advised Entities.

Our failure to comply with the extensive amount of regulation applicable to our investment management segment could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        Our investment management segment is subject to extensive regulation in the United States, primarily at the federal level, including regulation of PCM by the SEC under the Advisers Act and regulation of PNMAC Mortgage Opportunity Fund LLC, and PNMAC Mortgage Opportunity Fund, LP under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which we refer to as the "Investment Company Act." The requirements imposed by our regulators are designed primarily to ensure the integrity of the financial markets and to protect investors in our Advised Entities and are not designed to protect our stockholders. Consequently, these regulations often serve to limit our activities.

        These requirements relate to, among other things, fiduciary duties to clients, maintaining an effective compliance program, solicitation agreements, conflicts of interest, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, disclosure requirements, limitations on agency cross and principal transactions between an adviser and advisory clients and general anti-fraud prohibitions. Similar requirements apply to registered investment companies and to PCM's management of those companies under the Investment Company Act which, among other things, regulates the relationship between a registered investment company and its investment adviser and prohibits or severely restricts principal transactions and joint transactions. Registered investment advisers and registered investment companies are also subject to routine periodic examinations by the staff of the SEC.

        We also regularly rely on exemptions from various requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, which we refer to as the "Securities Act," the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which we refer to as the "Exchange Act," the Investment Company Act and ERISA. These exemptions are sometimes highly complex and may in certain circumstances depend on compliance by third parties and service providers whom we do not control. If for any reason these exemptions were to be revoked or challenged or otherwise become unavailable to us, we could be subject to regulatory action or third-party claims, and our business could be materially and adversely affected.

        Our business combines the production and servicing of loans and investment management, which presents particular compliance challenges. For example, regulations applicable to our investment management business that are easily applied to traditional investments, such as stocks and bonds, may be more difficult to apply to a portfolio of loans, and the regulations applicable to our investment management business can require procedures that are uncommon, impractical or difficult in our loan production and servicing business.

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        The failure by us to comply with applicable laws or regulations could result in fines, suspensions of individual employees or other sanctions, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if an investigation or proceeding did not result in a fine or sanction or the fine or sanction imposed against us or our employees by a regulator were small in monetary amount, the adverse publicity relating to an investigation, proceeding or imposition of these fines or sanctions could harm our reputation and cause us to lose existing clients.

Changes in regulations applicable to our investment management segment could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        The legislative and regulatory environment in which we operate has undergone significant changes in the recent past. We believe that significant regulatory changes in the investment management industry are likely to continue, which is likely to subject industry participants to additional, more costly and generally more detailed regulation. New laws or regulations, or changes in the enforcement of existing laws or regulations, applicable to us and our clients may adversely affect our business. Our ability to function in this environment will depend on our ability to monitor and promptly react to legislative and regulatory changes.

        Certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act will, and other provisions may, increase regulatory burdens and reporting and related compliance costs on our investment management segment. The scope of many provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act is being determined by implementing regulations, some of which will require lengthy proposal and promulgation periods. Moreover, the Dodd-Frank Act mandates many regulatory studies, some of which pertain directly to the investment management industry, which could lead to additional legislation or regulation. The SEC requires investment advisers such as us that are registered with the SEC and advise one or more private funds to provide certain information on Form PF about their funds and assets under management, including the amount of borrowings, concentration of ownership and other performance information. The Dodd-Frank Act will affect a broad range of market participants with whom we interact or may interact, including banks, non-bank financial institutions, rating agencies, mortgage brokers, credit unions, insurance companies and broker-dealers, and may cause us to become subject to further regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Regulatory changes that will affect other market participants are likely to change the way in which we conduct business with our counterparties. The uncertainty regarding the continued implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and its impact on the investment management industry and us cannot be predicted at this time but will continue to be a risk for our business.

        In addition, as a result of the recent economic downturn, acts of serious fraud in the investment management industry and perceived lapses in regulatory oversight, U.S. and non-U.S. governmental and regulatory authorities may increase regulatory oversight of our investment management segment. We may be adversely affected as a result of new or revised legislation or regulations imposed by the SEC, other U.S. or non-U.S. governmental regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations that supervise the financial markets. We also may be adversely affected by changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules by these governmental authorities and self-regulatory organizations, as well as by U.S. and non-U.S. courts. It is impossible to determine the extent of the impact of any new laws, regulations or initiatives that may be proposed on us or the markets in which we trade, or whether any of the proposals will become law. Compliance with any new laws or regulations could add to our compliance burden and costs and adversely affect the manner in which we conduct business, as well as our financial condition and results of operations.

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We may encounter conflicts of interest in trying to appropriately allocate our time and services between our own activities and the accounts that we manage, or in trying to appropriately allocate investment opportunities among ourselves and the accounts that we manage.

        Pursuant to our management agreements with PMT and the Investment Funds, we are obligated to provide PMT and the Investment Funds with the services of our senior management team, and the members of that team are required to devote such time to us as is necessary and appropriate, commensurate with the level of activity of PMT and the Investment Funds. The members of our senior management team may have conflicts in allocating their time and services between our operations and the activities of PMT, the Investment Funds and other entities or accounts managed by us now or in the future.

        Certain of the funds that we currently advise have, and certain of the funds that we may in the future advise may have, overlapping investment objectives, including funds which have different fee structures, and potential conflicts may arise with respect to our decisions regarding how to allocate investment opportunities among those funds. In addition, we and the other entities or accounts that we manage now or in the future may participate in some of PMT's investments, which may not be the result of arm's length negotiations and may involve or later result in potential conflicts between our interests in the investments and those of PMT or such other entities.

Our failure to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest could damage our reputation and adversely affect our business.

        As we have expanded the scope of our businesses, we increasingly confront potential conflicts of interest relating to the investment activities that we manage for our clients. In addition, investors in our clients may perceive conflicts of interest regarding investment decisions for funds in which our executive officers, who have made and may continue to make personal investments, are personally invested. Similarly, conflicts of interest may exist regarding decisions about the allocation of specific investment opportunities between funds in which we receive an allocation of profits as the general partner and funds in which we do not.

        The SEC and other regulators have increased their scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest, and as we expand the scope of our business and our client base, we must continue to monitor and address any conflicts between our interests and those of our clients. We have implemented procedures and controls to be followed when real or potential conflicts of interest arise, but it is possible that potential or perceived conflicts could give rise to the dissatisfaction of, or litigation by, investors in our client entities or regulatory enforcement actions. Appropriately dealing with conflicts of interest is complex and difficult and our reputation could be damaged if we fail, or appear to fail, to deal appropriately with one or more potential or actual conflicts of interest. Regulatory scrutiny, litigation or reputational risk incurred in connection with conflicts of interest would adversely affect our business in a number of ways, including a reluctance of counterparties to do business with us, and may adversely affect our results of operations.

The investment management industry is intensely competitive.

        The investment management industry is intensely competitive, with competition based on a variety of factors, including investment performance, management fee rates, continuity of the management team and client relationships, reputation and the continuity of buying and selling arrangements with intermediaries. A number of factors, including the following, serve to increase our competitive risks:

•

a number of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources, more comprehensive name recognition and more personnel than we do;



•

potential competitors have a relatively low cost of entering the investment management industry;

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•

some investors may prefer to invest with a manager that is not publicly traded based on the perception that a publicly traded investment manager may focus on the manager's own growth to the detriment of asset performance for clients;



•

other industry participants, hedge funds and alternative investment managers may seek to recruit our investment professionals; and



•

some competitors charge lower fees for their investment services than we do.

If we are unable to compete effectively, our results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

We are subject to third-party litigation risk, which could result in significant liabilities and reputational harm to us.

        In general, we will be exposed to the risk of litigation by investors in our client funds if our management of or advice to any Advised Entity is alleged to constitute gross negligence or willful misconduct. Investors could sue us to recover amounts lost by those entities due to our alleged misconduct, up to the entire amount of loss. Further, we may be subject to litigation arising from investor dissatisfaction with the performance of entities that we manage or from allegations that we improperly exercised control or influence over those entities. In addition, we are exposed to risks of litigation or investigation relating to transactions which presented conflicts of interest that were not properly addressed. In such actions we would be obligated to bear legal, settlement and other costs (which may be in excess of available insurance coverage). In addition, although we are generally indemnified by the entities that we manage, our rights to indemnification may be challenged. If we are required to incur all or a portion of the costs arising out of litigation or investigations as a result of inadequate insurance proceeds or failure to obtain indemnification from the entities that we manage, our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity would be materially adversely affected.

Risks Relating to Our Business in General

We have experienced rapid growth, which may be difficult to sustain and which may place significant demands on our administrative, operational and financial resources.

        Our servicing portfolio, measured in UPB, and annual loan production have grown from approximately $5.4 billion and $69.2 million, respectively, at and for the year ended December 31, 2010 to $28.2 billion and $22.0 billion, respectively, at and for the year ended December 31, 2012. Our rapid growth has caused, and if it continues will continue to cause, significant demands on our legal, accounting and operational infrastructure, and increased expenses. In addition, we are required to continuously develop our systems and infrastructure in response to the increasing sophistication of the investment management and mortgage lending markets and legal, accounting and regulatory developments relating to all of our business activities. Our future growth will depend, among other things, on our ability to maintain an operating platform and management system sufficient to address our growth and will require us to incur significant additional expenses and to commit additional senior management and operational resources. As a result, we face significant challenges in:

•

maintaining adequate financial and business controls,



•

implementing new or updated information and financial systems and procedures, and



•

training, managing and appropriately sizing our work force and other components of our business on a timely and cost-effective basis.

        We may not be able to manage our expanding operations effectively and we may not be able to continue to grow, and any failure to do so could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and control our expenses.

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Accounting rules for certain of our transactions are highly complex and involve significant judgment and assumptions. Changes in accounting interpretations or assumptions could impact our financial statements.

        Accounting rules for mortgage loan sales and securitizations, valuations of financial instruments and MSRs, investment consolidations and other aspects of our operations are highly complex and involve significant judgment and assumptions. These complexities could lead to a delay in preparation of financial information and the delivery of this information to our stockholders and also increase the risk of errors and restatements, as well as the cost of compliance. Changes in accounting interpretations or assumptions could impact our financial statements and our ability to timely prepare our financial statements. Although we are an emerging growth company, we are electing to comply with new public company accounting standards. Our inability to timely prepare our financial statements in the future would likely adversely affect our share price significantly.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately determine our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, our stockholders could lose confidence in our financial results, which could harm our business and the market value of our common shares.

        Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and effectively prevent fraud. We may in the future discover areas of our internal controls that need improvement. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 will require us to continue to evaluate and to report on our internal controls over financial reporting. We cannot be certain that we will be successful in continuing to maintain adequate control over our financial reporting and financial processes. Furthermore, as we rapidly grow our business, our internal controls will become more complex, and we will require significantly more resources to ensure our internal controls remain effective. If we or our independent auditors discover a material weakness, the disclosure of that fact, even if quickly remedied, could reduce the market value of shares of our Class A common stock. Additionally, the existence of any material weakness or significant deficiency would require management to devote significant time and incur significant expense to remediate any such material weaknesses or significant deficiencies and management may not be able to remediate any such material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in a timely manner.

The loss of the services of our senior managers could adversely affect our business.

        The experience of our senior managers is a valuable asset to us. Our management team has significant experience in the residential mortgage loan production and servicing industry and the investment management industry. We do not maintain key life insurance policies relating to our senior managers. The loss of the services of our senior managers for any reason could adversely affect our business.

Our business could suffer if we fail to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce.

        Our future success will depend on our ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified personnel for all areas of our organization, in particular skilled managers, loan officers, underwriters, loan servicers and debt default specialists. Trained and experienced personnel are in high demand and may be in short supply in some areas. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than we have and may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment. In addition, we invest significant time and expense in training our employees, which increases their value to competitors who may seek to recruit them. We may not be able to attract, develop and maintain an adequate skilled workforce necessary to operate our businesses and labor expenses may increase as a result of a shortage in the supply of qualified personnel. If we are unable to attract and retain such personnel, we may not be able to take advantage of acquisitions and other growth opportunities that may be presented to us and this could materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The success and growth of our business will depend upon our ability to adapt to and implement technological changes.

        Our mortgage loan production business is currently dependent upon our ability to effectively interface with our borrowers, mortgage lenders and other third parties and to efficiently process loan applications and closings. The retail and correspondent lending processes are becoming more dependent upon technological advancement, such as our continued ability to process applications over the Internet, accept electronic signatures, provide process status updates instantly and other borrower- or counterparty-expected conveniences. Maintaining and improving this new technology and becoming proficient with it may also require significant capital expenditures. As these requirements increase in the future, we will have to fully develop these technological capabilities to remain competitive and any failure to do so could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Technology failures could damage our business operations and increase our costs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        The financial services industry as a whole is characterized by rapidly changing technologies, and system disruptions and failures caused by fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, unauthorized intrusion, computer viruses and disabling devices, natural disasters and other similar events may interrupt or delay our ability to provide services to our customers. Security breaches, acts of vandalism and developments in computer capabilities could result in a compromise or breach of the technology that we use to protect our customers' personal information and transaction data. Despite our efforts to ensure the integrity of our systems, it is possible that we may not be able to anticipate or implement effective preventive measures against all security breaches, especially because the methods of attack change frequently or are not recognized until launched, and because security attacks can originate from a wide variety of sources, including third parties such as persons involved with organized crime or associated with external service providers. Those parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees, customers or other users of our systems to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our data or that of our customers or clients. These risks may increase in the future as we continue to increase our reliance on the Internet and use of web-based product offerings.

        A successful penetration or circumvention of the security of our systems or a defect in the integrity of our systems or cyber security could cause serious negative consequences for our business, including significant disruption of our operations, misappropriation of our confidential information or that of our customers, or damage to our computers or operating systems and to those of our customers and counterparties. Any of the foregoing events could result in violations of applicable privacy and other laws, financial loss to us or to our customers, loss of confidence in our security measures, customer dissatisfaction, significant litigation exposure and harm to our reputation, all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Terrorist attacks and other acts of violence or war may affect the real estate industry generally and our business, financial condition and results of operations.

        The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 disrupted the U.S. financial markets, including the real estate capital markets, and negatively impacted the U.S. economy in general. Any future terrorist attacks, the anticipation of any such attacks, the consequences of any military or other response by the United States and its allies, and other armed conflicts could cause consumer confidence and spending to decrease or result in increased volatility in the United States and worldwide financial markets and economy. The economic impact of these events could also adversely affect the credit quality of some of our loans and investments and the properties underlying our interests.

        We may suffer losses as a result of the adverse impact of any future attacks and these losses may adversely impact our performance and may cause the market value of our common shares to decline or be more volatile. A prolonged economic slowdown, recession or declining real estate values could

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impair the performance of our investments and harm our financial condition and results of operations, increase our funding costs, limit our access to the capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us. We cannot predict the severity of the effect that potential future armed conflicts and terrorist attacks would have on us. Losses resulting from these types of events may not be fully insurable.

Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure

PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.'s only material asset after completion of this offering will be its interest in Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC and its subsidiaries, and it is accordingly dependent upon distributions from Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC and its subsidiaries to pay taxes, make payments under the tax receivable agreement or pay dividends.

        PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. will be a holding company and will have no material assets other than its ownership of New Holdings Units. PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. has no independent means of generating revenue. PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. will be required to pay tax on its allocable share of the taxable income of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC without regard to whether Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC distributes any cash or other property to PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. intends to cause Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC to make distributions to its unit holders in an amount sufficient to cover all applicable taxes at assumed tax rates, payments under the tax receivable agreement and dividends, if any, declared by it. To the extent that PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. needs funds, and Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC is restricted from making such distributions under applicable law or regulation or under the terms of our financing arrangements, or is otherwise unable to provide such funds, it could materially adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.

We will be required to pay our existing owners for certain tax benefits that we may claim arising in connection with this offering and related transactions, and the amounts we may pay could be significant.

        As described in "Organizational Structure—Recapitalization," we intend to use all of the proceeds from this offering to purchase New Holdings Units. We will enter into a tax receivable agreement with our existing owners that will provide for the payment by PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. to the existing owners of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC of 85% of the tax benefits, if any, that PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. is deemed to realize under certain circumstances as a result of (i) increases in tax basis resulting from exchanges of New Holdings Units and (ii) certain other tax benefits related to our entering into the tax receivable agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments under the tax receivable agreement. See "Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement."

        We expect that the payments that we may make under the tax receivable agreement will be substantial. It is possible that future transactions or events could increase or decrease the actual tax benefits realized and the corresponding tax receivable agreement payments. There may be a material negative effect on our liquidity if, as a result of timing discrepancies or otherwise, the payments under the tax receivable agreement exceed the actual benefits we realize in respect of the tax attributes subject to the tax receivable agreement or distributions to PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. by Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC are not sufficient to permit PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. to make payments under the tax receivable agreement after it has paid taxes. Furthermore, our obligations to make payments under the tax receivable agreement could make us a less attractive target for an acquisition, particularly in the case of an acquirer that cannot use some or all of the tax benefits that are deemed realized under the tax receivable agreement. The payments under the tax receivable agreement are not conditioned upon our existing owners' continued ownership of us.

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In certain cases, payments under the tax receivable agreement to our existing owners may be accelerated and/or significantly exceed the actual benefits we realize in respect of the tax attributes subject to the tax receivable agreement.

        The tax receivable agreement provides that upon certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combinations or other changes of control, or if, at any time, we elect an early termination of the tax receivable agreement, the corporate taxpayer's (or its successor's) obligations with respect to exchanged or acquired New Holdings Units (whether exchanged or acquired before or after such transaction) would be based on certain assumptions, including that the corporate taxpayer would have sufficient taxable income to fully utilize the deductions arising from the increased tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits related to entering into the tax receivable agreement. As a result, we could be required to make payments under the tax receivable agreement that are greater than or less than the percentage specified in the tax receivable agreement of the actual benefits that we realize in respect of the tax attributes that are subject to the tax receivable agreement. Also, if we elect to terminate the tax receivable agreement early, we would be required to make an immediate payment equal to the present value of the anticipated future tax benefits, which upfront payment may be made years in advance of the actual realization of such future benefits (if any). In these situations, our obligations under the tax receivable agreement could have a substantial negative impact on our liquidity, as well as our attractiveness as a target for an acquisition. In addition, we may not be able to finance our obligations under the tax receivable agreement.

        Payments under the tax receivable agreement will be based on the tax reporting positions that we determine. Although we are not aware of any issue that would cause the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, to challenge a tax basis increase, PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. will not be reimbursed for any payments previously made under the tax receivable agreement. As a result, in certain circumstances, payments could be made under the tax receivable agreement in excess of the benefits that the corporate taxpayer actually realizes in respect of (i) increases in tax basis resulting from exchanges of New Holdings Units and (ii) certain other tax benefits related to our entering into the tax receivable agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments under the tax receivable agreement.

Our existing owners will initially be able to significantly influence the outcome of votes of the outstanding shares of PennyMac Financial Services, Inc., and their interests may differ from those of our public stockholders.

        Pursuant to separate stockholder agreements with BlackRock and Highfields, each of BlackRock and Highfields will have the right to nominate one or two individuals for election to our board of directors, depending on the percentage of the voting power of our outstanding shares of stock that it holds, and we are obligated to use our best efforts to cause the election of those nominees. In addition, these stockholder agreements require that we obtain the consent of BlackRock and Highfields with respect to amendments to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, and the limited liability company agreement of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC requires the consent of BlackRock and Highfields for us to conduct certain activities. As a result, each of BlackRock and Highfields may be able to significantly influence our management and affairs. In addition, as a result of the size of their individual equity holding they will initially be able to significantly influence the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval, including mergers and other material transactions, and may be able to cause or prevent a change in the composition of our board of directors or a change in control of our company that could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their Class A common stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

        In addition, because they hold their ownership interest in our business through Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC, rather than through the public company, these existing owners may have conflicting interests with holders of shares of our Class A common stock. For example, our

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existing owners may have different tax positions from us which could influence their decisions regarding whether and when to dispose of assets, whether and when to incur new or refinance existing indebtedness, especially in light of the existence of the tax receivable agreement that we will enter in connection with this offering, and whether and when PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. should terminate the tax receivable agreement and accelerate its obligations thereunder. In addition, the structuring of future transactions may take into consideration these existing owners' tax or other considerations even where no similar benefit would accrue to us. See "Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement."

We may not pay dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

        PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. will receive a pro rata portion of the tax distributions made by Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC following this offering. The cash received from such distributions will first be used to satisfy any tax liability of PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. and then to make any payments under the tax receivable agreement with our existing owners. The declaration, amount and payment of any dividends on shares of Class A common stock with respect to any remaining excess cash will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors. Our board of directors may take into account general and economic conditions, our financial condition and operating results, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. We may also enter into credit agreements or other borrowing arrangements in the future that restrict or limit our ability to pay cash dividends on our common stock. Accordingly, we may not pay any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. See "Dividend Policy."

Our certificate of incorporation contains provisions renouncing our interest and expectancy in certain corporate opportunities identified by or presented to BlackRock and Highfields.

        BlackRock, Highfields and their respective affiliates are in the business of providing capital to growing companies, and may acquire interests in businesses that directly or indirectly compete with certain portions of our business. Our certificate of incorporation, in the amended and restated form that will be in effect upon the completion of the offering, provides that neither BlackRock nor Highfields nor their respective affiliates has any duty to refrain from (i) engaging, directly or indirectly, in a corporate opportunity in the same or similar lines of business in which we now engage or propose to engage, or (ii) doing business with any of our clients, customers or vendors. In the event that either of BlackRock or Highfields or their respective affiliates acquires knowledge of a potential transaction or other business opportunity which may be a corporate opportunity for itself or its affiliates and for us or our affiliates other than in the capacity as one of our officers or directors, then neither BlackRock nor Highfields has any duty to communicate or offer such transaction or business opportunity to us and may take any such opportunity for themselves or offer it to another person or entity. Neither BlackRock nor Highfields nor any officer, director or employee thereof, shall be liable to us or to any of our stockholders (or any affiliates thereof) for breach of any fiduciary or other duty by engaging in any such activity and we waive and renounce any claim based on such activity. This provision applies even if the business opportunity is one that we might reasonably be deemed to have pursued or had the ability or desire to pursue if granted the opportunity to do so. Our separate stockholder agreements with BlackRock and Highfields provide that any amendment or repeal of the provisions related to corporate opportunities described above requires the consent of each of BlackRock and Highfields as long as it, or any of its affiliates, holds any equity interest in us. These potential conflicts of interest could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects if attractive corporate opportunities are allocated by BlackRock or Highfields to themselves or their other affiliates instead of to us. The terms of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation are more fully described in "Description of Capital Stock—Corporate Opportunity."

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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law might discourage or delay acquisition attempts for us that you might consider favorable.

        Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, each in the amended and restated form that will be in effect upon the completion of the offering, contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult without the approval of our board of directors. Among other things, these provisions:

•

authorize the issuance of undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and the shares of which may be issued without stockholder approval, and which may include super voting, special approval, dividend, or other rights or preferences superior to the rights of the holders of Class A common stock;



•

prohibit stockholder action by written consent unless the matter as to which action is being taken has been approved by our board of directors, which requires all stockholder actions regarding matters not approved by our board of directors to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;



•

provide that our board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our amended and restated bylaws, (provided that, if that action adversely affects BlackRock or Highfields when that entity, together with its affiliates, holds at least 5% of the voting power of our outstanding shares of capital stock, our stockholder agreements provide that such action must be approved by that entity);



•

establish advance notice requirements for nominations for elections to our board or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings; and



•

prevent us from selling substantially all of our assets or completing a merger or other business combination that constitutes a change of control without the approval of a majority of those of our directors who are not also our officers.

        These anti-takeover provisions and other provisions under Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company, including actions that our stockholders may deem advantageous, or negatively affect the trading price of our Class A common stock. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions you desire.

Risks Related to this Offering

An active trading market for our Class A common stock may never develop or be sustained.

        Although we have applied to list our Class A common stock on the NYSE, even if such application is approved an active trading market for our Class A common stock may not develop on that exchange or elsewhere or, if developed, that market may not be sustained. Accordingly, if an active trading market for our Class A common stock does not develop or is not maintained, the liquidity of our Class A common stock, your ability to sell your shares of Class A common stock when desired and the prices that you may obtain for your shares of Class A common stock will be adversely affected.

We are an "emerging growth company" and as a result of the reduced disclosure and governance requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, our common stock may be less attractive to investors.

        We are an "emerging growth company" as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure

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obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.0 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Class A common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700.0 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

        Under Section 107(b) of the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

The market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock may be volatile, which could result in rapid and substantial losses for our stockholders.

        Even if an active trading market develops, the market price of our Class A common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. In addition, the trading volume in our Class A common stock may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock will be determined by negotiation between us and the representatives of the underwriters based on a number of factors and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the open market following completion of this offering. If the market price of our Class A common stock declines significantly, you may be unable to resell your shares at or above your purchase price, if at all. The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate or decline significantly in the future. Some of the factors that could negatively affect our share price or result in fluctuations in the price or trading volume of our Class A common stock include:

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variations in our quarterly or annual operating results;



•

changes in our earnings estimates (if provided) or differences between our actual financial and operating results and those expected by investors and analysts;



•

the contents of published research reports about us or our industry or the failure of securities analysts to cover our Class A common stock after this offering;



•

additions or departures of key management personnel;



•

any increased indebtedness we may incur in the future;



•

announcements by us or others and developments affecting us;



•

actions by institutional stockholders;



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litigation and governmental investigations;



•

changes in market valuations of similar companies;



•

speculation or reports by the press or investment community with respect to us or our industry in general;

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•

increases in market interest rates that may lead purchasers of our shares to demand a higher yield;



•

announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, dispositions, strategic relationships, joint ventures or capital commitments; and



•

general market, political and economic conditions, including any such conditions and local conditions in the markets in which our customers are located.

        These broad market and industry factors may decrease the market price of our Class A common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. The stock market in general has from time to time experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations, including in recent months. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a company's securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management's attention and resources.

Future offerings of debt or equity securities by us may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

        In the future, we may attempt to obtain financing or to further increase our capital resources by issuing additional shares of our Class A common stock or offering debt or other equity securities, including commercial paper, medium-term notes, senior or subordinated notes, debt securities convertible into equity or shares of preferred stock. In particular, we intend to seek opportunities to acquire loan servicing portfolios. Future acquisitions could require substantial additional capital in excess of cash from operations. We would expect to obtain the capital required for acquisitions through a combination of additional issuances of equity, corporate indebtedness, asset-backed acquisition financing and/or cash from operations.

        Issuing additional shares of our Class A common stock or other equity securities or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of our existing stockholders or reduce the market price of our Class A common stock or both. Upon liquidation, holders of such debt securities and preferred shares, if issued, and lenders with respect to other borrowings would receive a distribution of our available assets prior to the holders of our Class A common stock. Debt securities convertible into equity could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred shares, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our Class A common stock. Our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, which may adversely affect the amount, timing or nature of our future offerings. In addition, the limited liability company agreement of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC provides that new classes of units or other equity interests of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC may be issued to third parties other than PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. following the completion of this offering only with the approval of BlackRock and Highfields as long as they, or any of their affiliates, hold any New Holding Units. Any such issuance will dilute the ownership of holders of our Class A common stock in substantially all of our operating assets. Thus, holders of our Class A common stock bear the risk that our future offerings, including any future offerings by Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC, may reduce the market price of our Class A common stock and dilute their stockholdings in us. See "Description of Capital Stock."

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The market price of our Class A common stock could be negatively affected by sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public markets.

        After this offering, there will initially be 11,111,111 shares of Class A common stock outstanding or 12,777,777 shares outstanding if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full. Of our issued and outstanding shares, all the Class A common stock sold in this offering will be freely transferable, except for any shares held by our "affiliates," as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. We will enter into an exchange agreement with the existing owners of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC, under which each existing owner (and certain permitted transferees thereof) may, from and after the closing of this offering (subject to the terms of the exchange agreement), exchange their New Holdings Units for shares of Class A common stock of PennyMac Financial Services, Inc., initially on a one-for-one basis. If all New Holdings Units were exchanged pursuant to this agreement immediately following the closing of this offering, an additional 63,111,111 shares of Class A common stock would be outstanding.

        All of the existing holders of New Holdings Units have agreed with the underwriters that, subject to customary exceptions, for a period of 180 days after the date of this prospectus, they will not directly or indirectly sell any Class A common stock, options or warrants to acquire shares of our Class A common stock, or any related security or instrument (including without limitation any New Holdings Units and any shares of Class B common stock) or cause a registration statement covering any Class A common stock to be filed, without the prior written consent of each of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Goldman, Sachs & Co. and certain of our existing holders will be further restricted from selling shares of Class A common stock that they may acquire pursuant to the exchange agreement due to their status as our "affiliates." The market price of our Class A common stock may decline significantly when these restrictions on the sale of Class A common stock by our existing stockholders lapse due to the actual or publicly anticipated sale of this stock into the public market. A decline in the price of our Class A common stock might impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional Class A common stock or other equity securities.

The future issuance of additional Class A common stock in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions or otherwise will dilute all other stockholdings.

        After this offering, assuming the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full, we will have an aggregate of 120,204,679 shares of Class A common stock authorized but unissued and not reserved for issuance under our 2013 Equity Incentive Plan or upon the exchange of New Holdings Units. We may issue all of these shares of Class A common stock without any action or approval by our stockholders, subject to certain exceptions. We also intend to continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities and may issue Class A common stock in connection with these acquisitions. Any Class A common stock issued in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions, the exercise of outstanding stock options or otherwise would dilute the percentage ownership held by the investors who purchase Class A common stock in this offering.

Investors in this offering will suffer immediate and substantial dilution.

        The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock will be substantially higher than the net tangible book value per share issued and outstanding immediately after this offering. Our pro forma net tangible book value per share as of December 31, 2012 was approximately $4.15 and represents the amount of book value of our total tangible assets minus the book value of our total liabilities, divided by the number of our shares of Class A common stock then issued and outstanding (assuming that all of our existing owners' equity was converted into New Holdings Units and all New Holdings Units (other than those held by PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.) were exchanged for newly-issued shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis). Investors who purchase Class A

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common stock in this offering will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds the net tangible book value per share of Class A common stock. If you purchase shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of $11.98 in the net tangible book value per share, based upon the initial public offering price of $18.00 per share (the midpoint of the estimated initial public offering price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus). Investors that purchase Class A common stock in this offering will have purchased 15.0% of the shares issued and outstanding immediately after the offering (assuming that all of our existing owners exchanged their New Holdings Units for newly-issued shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis), but will have paid 43.3% of the total consideration for those shares.

Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC will have broad discretion in the use of a significant part of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.

        We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering to purchase newly-issued New Holdings Units from Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC. We intend to cause Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC to use the net proceeds from this offering in the manner described in "Use of Proceeds" and Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC will have broad discretion in the application of a significant part of the net proceeds from this offering. The failure by Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC to apply these funds effectively could affect our ability to operate and grow our business.

As a public company, we will incur additional costs and face increased demands on our management.

        As a public company with shares listed on a U.S. exchange, we will need to comply with an extensive body of regulations that did not apply to us previously, including provisions of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX, regulations of the SEC and requirements of the NYSE. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly, particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company. For example, as a result of becoming a public company, we intend to add independent directors, create additional board committees and adopt certain policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, we will incur additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements and maintaining directors' and officers' liability insurance. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules, which may impose additional costs on us and materially affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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