Valuation of mortgage servicing rights Description of the Matter The Company invests in servicing related assets comprised of mortgage servicing rights (“MSR”) totaling $2.1 billion as of December 31, 2023 as included in Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements. The Company records MSR at fair value on a recurring basis with changes in fair value recognized in the statement of comprehensive income (loss). These fair value estimates are based on valuation techniques used to estimate future cash flows that incorporate unobservable assumptions, including discount rate, prepayment rate, delinquency rate and cost to service. Auditing the valuation of MSR is complex and required the use of a specialist due to the high degree of judgement in the assumptions made by management which are unobservable in nature. Additionally, selecting and applying audit procedures to address the estimation uncertainty involves auditor subjectivity and industry-specific knowledge of MSR, including the current market conditions considered by a market participant. How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit We obtained an understanding, evaluated and tested the Company’s processes and the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls addressing the valuation of MSR, comprising management’s governance over the functionality of the discounted cash flow model utilized to estimate fair value; management’s review of the reasonableness of the unobservable assumptions used in the discounted cash flow model (i.e., discount rate, prepayment rate, delinquency rate and cost to service); management’s comparison of the assumptions used to independent third-party data; and management’s evaluation of the internal fair value mark to third-party independent valuation firms’ ranges, as well as their evaluation of the competence and objectivity of those third-party independent valuation firms, to assess the reasonableness of the fair values developed by the Company. To test the valuation of MSR, our audit procedures included, among others, evaluating the Company’s valuation techniques used to estimate future cash flows, validating the accuracy and completeness of model objective inputs by agreeing these inputs to the Company’s underlying records and third-party data, evaluating the Company’s model, and testing the significant unobservable assumptions used by management by comparing them to current industry, market and economic trends. We involved our valuation specialists to assist in our evaluation of the Company’s valuation techniques and the assumptions used by management, and to independently develop a range of fair values for the MSR. We compared the assumptions made by management and management’s estimate of fair value to the assumptions and fair value ranges developed by management’s valuation specialists and our independent ranges to assess management’s estimates of fair value. We also assessed the competence and objectivity of management’s independent valuation firms engaged to evaluate the reasonableness of the fair values developed by the Company. /s/ Ernst & Young LLP We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2012. New York, NY February 15, 2024 ANNALY CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Financial Statements F-2
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