United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) Chairman, President & CEO Mat Ishbia foreshadowed potential legal action with mortgage servicer Two Harbors for the allegedly “inappropriate” handling of its sale.
During the company’s Q2 earnings call, Ishbia addressed the bidding war against CrossCountry Mortgage in order to acquire Two Harbors, which took place back in the spring. UWM had attempted to outbid CrossCountry Mortgage by upping its offer, an offer seemingly supported by an advisory firm.
However, UWM eventually abandoned the fight, and CrossCountry Mortgage’s acquisition of the company was completed in July.
Ishbia stated that it was “definitely unfortunate” how everything in the deal occurred, and said that some things in the situation were handled “inappropriately,” which will be revealed later through litigation.
“We’ll go through the litigation process with Two Harbors and CrossCountry and some of the inappropriate things that happened in that deal at that time…we’ll go through that process when that time comes,” he said.
In a shift following the failure of the Two Harbors deal, UWM announced the day before its earnings release a new capital partnership with the Ishbia Family—via their investment vehicle SFS Group Capital LLC—and Oaktree Capital Management to the tune of $2.05 billion.
During the earnings call, Ishbia said that when the Two Harbors deal did not shape up as expected, UWM “had another option” in Oaktree.
“Oaktree wrote a massive size check to be part of this and to be next to me and UWM and help us grow together,” he continued. “If the (Two Harbors) deal would have closed, maybe the Oaktree thing would not have happened as quickly.”
Ishbia continued on to express that the “silver lining” is that Oaktree is a “much better partnership for us than Two Harbors or anything else would have been.”
“I think of it as a long-term upside for UWM the way it all played out,” he continued.
Diving a bit more into the deal, Ishbia said that Oaktree “has a great background, great reputation from their leadership to also just their mortgage knowledge and their housing belief.”
He noted that Oaktree has some “different belief systems on things that maybe can help us,” but that it still believes “heavily” in UWM’s strategy and vision.
“I wouldn’t be aligned with someone that didn’t believe strategically and the same thing from housing, from the infrastructure we built for brokers, the AI investments that we’re making and continue to make so they’re aligned with us and how we’re doing things,” he continued. “I think it’s really been a perfect match.”
The numbers
Breaking down the finances themselves, Q2 at UWM turned out some mixed results.
UWM originated $39.7 billion in loans in Q2 2026, down from $44.9 billion last quarter but matching up exactly to Q2 2025. Of this number, $23.8 billion was purchase originations—up from $18.7 billion last quarter but down from $27.3 billion last year—and $15.9 billion was refinance originations—down from $26.3 billion last quarter but up from $12.4 billion last year.
Revenue clocked in at $888 million, down from $901.4 million last quarter but up from $758.7 million last year. Net loss was up quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year in Q2 to $451.9 million (up from $170.4 million and $314.5 million, respectively), which the company partially attributed to the hedge loss from the Two Harbors deal. Specifically, UWM stated it saw a $603 million derivative loss in Q2.
“When you’re going through and acquiring a company like Two Harbors and a massive MSR book, then our MSR book becomes double the size of what we’ve always managed. And therefore, it created a little more risk,” Ishbia explained. “Because of the Two Harbors, we were overhedged, if you think of it that way, protecting against the Two Harbors transaction.”
Ishbia also explained that the hedge loss was a “one-time event” that “won’t happen again” as the company’s hedging policies have since been improved and it is “not acquiring another company that has an MSR book like that; at least that’s not the plan for now.”
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $185.9 million, up from $160.9 million last quarter but down from $195.7 million last year.
Notably, UWM’s stock fell almost 40% after the earnings report, and is down close to 75% year to date.
With the announcement of the SFS Group Capital and Oaktree partnership, UWM stated that the Company’s Board of Directors decided to currently suspend its quarterly dividend, with the intention to evaluate bringing it back as each quarter ends.
“Will there be special dividends down the road? Possibly. Will we go back to the regular dividend? Possibly,” Ishbia said on the call. “Once again, we look at that stuff every single quarter. But the reality is liquidity matters, equity matters, and we have the best operating business and infrastructure for brokers to grow and dominate. And so if I can make sure the capital and liquidity are in a great position, then all the rest takes care of itself.”
“Once again, it’s been a tough four, five years in the mortgage industry. The next four or five years are going to be significantly better,” he concluded.
