Pennymac took top honors in several categories in Scotsman Guide’s 2025 Top Mortgage Lenders rankings, including Total Overall Volume. The Westlake Village, Calif.-based company produced $115 billion in loan volume last year, the best of more than 90 lenders that submitted financial details for the rankings.
Doug Jones, Pennymac’s president and chief mortgage banking officer, spoke to Scotsman Guide about how the company turned in a banner year in 2024. He addressed the challenges facing homebuyers and lenders alike this coming year and about why he’s hopeful despite some expected volatility.
He also spoke about the annual golf tournament being held this month to honor the company’s founder, Stanford Kurland, who died in 2021. The tournament raises money for brain cancer research at the UCLA Neuro-Oncology Program in the David Geffen School of Medicine.
Pennymac did $115 billion in loan volume last year, up from $99 billion the year before. Why was 2024 a stronger year?
Fundamentally, we got back to playing a little more offense — ’23 was kind of a reset year for almost the entire industry coming out of the very low rates of 2020-21 and into 2022. You just had better focus, better execution. Yes, we were pretty pleased with that.
How’s the current year been so far?
Let’s call it a bit volatile. We’ve got a lot going on in Washington and, whether you’re pro or con, I don’t want to get into that. I don’t know there’s so much volatility necessarily in housing, but there is in interest rates. We see data and the consumer goes, ‘I’m in, I’m going to get a house,’ and then something happens and they back out for about three weeks and the market goes pretty soft.
What do you expect will happen for the rest of this year and into the future?
With all the tariff activity and some of the things the Trump administration wants to do, there’s going to be some volatility, we got to see how that works out. If rates get down into the low-6s or touch the high-5s, you’d see a pretty nice little refi market versus 75%-85% purchase.
If we get rates coming down or pockets where rates are lower for two or three months, then you’d see a much larger market. You would probably see a consumer with a little more confidence. As a company, you’ve got to be prepared to execute in every scenario.
What is the biggest concern for the mortgage market — interest rates, lack of inventory or economic uncertainty or something else?
It’s all those things. The really good news is that housing is America, it’s the core of our country. If you look at it over the full year of 2025, it will probably be an OK year, but how we get there to December ’25, there’s going to be some peaks and valleys and some interesting moments that you just got to manage.
How are you keeping up with the technology demands?
Tech is clearly on the forefront in the entire industry. We’re what, a $13 trillion to $14 trillion industry, foundational to America. I will say that evolution of tech has lagged. It’s getting addressed through a lot of the industry leaders, it’s getting addressed through some tech startups that have really good products.
The cost to do a single-family mortgage ranges from $9,500 to $12,000 — that’s crazy. We’re doing a lot of work with a few fintech startups where we’ve got what I’ll call proof of concept that it does what it needs to do — lower the cost to originate it.
What about cybersecurity? How much of an issue is that becoming?
It’s real. It’s not necessarily just the mortgage industry or financial institutions, it’s everywhere. It’s one of those things you spend time on, you take precautions, you’re very conservative, you’re very careful. That said, there have been very careful conservative companies that got nailed. So, we take it very seriously.
Your golf tournament that honors your founder Stanford Kurland has raised more than $7 million. What can you tell me about that event?
When we were at work, Stan could be challenging. He was a great leader, but he was tough as nails. On the more social side, he was the most giving, caring person you could meet. Stan was taken way too early and died of brain cancer. Then we found out in dealing with his doctors at UCLA that brain cancer has this massive underfunding.
So, we’ve been very fortunate to partner with UCLA and their medical school. We take a couple days, have some fun, a few laughs and celebrate Stan and most importantly raise some more money for UCLA.
What else should I be asking?
We are very focused on continued growth in our [third-party origination] channel and, for that matter, in our correspondent channel. Our broker partners and our correspondent partners are how we access the purchase market and so they’re just so important to our overall success.
The great thing is that these small, medium and even semi-large independent large banks and brokers, they’re amazing at one thing — sales. They’re great hunters, they’re great sales peeps. We totally embrace what they do. So, it’s continuing to support them, understand their businesses, their competition, what they need, how do we supply it and how do we become a better partner.
