Variable Interest Entities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Variable interest entities ("VIEs") are legal entities that either have an insufficient amount of equity at risk for the entity to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support or, as a group, the holders of equity investment at risk lack the ability to direct the entity's activities that most significantly impact economic performance through voting or similar rights, or do not have the obligation to absorb the expected losses or the right to receive expected residual returns of the entity.

For all VIEs in which the Company is involved, it assesses whether it is the primary beneficiary of the VIE on an ongoing basis. In circumstances where the Company has both the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the VIEs performance and the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive the benefits of the VIE that could be significant, it would conclude that it is the primary beneficiary of the VIE, and it consolidates the VIE. In situations where the Company is not deemed to be the primary beneficiary of the VIE, it does not consolidate the VIE and only recognizes its interests in the VIE. In addition, on June 16, 2023 and August 3, 2023, the Company entered into forward flow whole loan sale agreements that are considered secured borrowings and are not considered VIEs. See Note 8, Borrowings for additional information on the secured borrowing under the caption of asset-backed borrowings at amortized cost.

Consolidated VIEs

As part of the Company’s overall funding strategy, the Company transfers a pool of designated loans receivable to wholly owned special-purpose subsidiaries to collateralize certain asset-backed financing transactions. For these VIEs where the Company has determined that it is the primary beneficiary because it has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the VIEs’ economic performance and the obligation to absorb the losses or the right to receive benefits from the VIEs that could potentially be significant to the VIEs, the VIEs assets and related liabilities are consolidated with the results of the Company. Such power arises from the Company’s contractual right to service the loans receivable securing the VIEs’ asset-backed debt obligations. The Company has an obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits that are potentially significant to the VIEs because it retains the residual interest of each asset-backed financing transaction in the form of an asset-backed certificate. Accordingly, the Company includes the VIEs’ assets, including the assets securing the financing transactions, and related liabilities in its condensed consolidated financial statements.

Each consolidated VIE issues a series of asset-backed securities that are supported by the cash flows arising from the loans receivable securing such debt. Cash inflows arising from such loans receivable are distributed monthly to the transaction’s lenders and related service providers in accordance with the transaction’s contractual priority of payments. The creditors of the VIEs above have no recourse to the general credit of the Company as the primary beneficiary of the VIEs and the liabilities of the VIEs can only be settled by the respective VIE’s assets. The Company retains the most subordinated economic interest in each financing transaction through its ownership of the respective residual interest in each VIE. The Company has no obligation to repurchase loans receivable that initially satisfied the financing transaction’s eligibility criteria but subsequently became delinquent or a defaulted loans receivable.

The following table represents the assets and liabilities of consolidated VIEs recorded on the Company’s Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited):


	June 30,		December 31,
(in thousands)	2024		2023
Consolidated VIE assets
Restricted cash	$	133,945	$	91,466
Loans receivable at fair value	2,185,915		2,539,186


Total VIE assets	2,319,860		2,630,652
Consolidated VIE liabilities
Secured financing (1)	156,696		290,949
Asset-backed notes at fair value	1,583,088		1,780,005
Asset-backed borrowings at amortized cost	345,172		195,057
Acquisition financing (1)	40,066		57,237
Total VIE liabilities	$	2,125,022	$	2,323,248

(1) Amounts exclude deferred financing costs. See Note 8, Borrowings for additional information.