Company: MFAN
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-014577
Chunk: 43

Company: MFA FINANCIAL, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 43
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 estate-focused finance companies in both the residential and commercial sectors, the executives of which are required to have similar skills and experience as the executives of MFA, including the evaluation of credit risk, interest rate risk and allocation of capital (which are skills required in connection with the evaluation of residential whole loans, business purpose loans, residential mortgage-backed securities and other residential mortgage-related assets). In addition, the Compensation Committee has also considered for inclusion in the peer group companies that identify MFA as a peer, that identify peers as peers in their own peer group, and companies that have, in prior years, been identified by the proxy advisory firms as being comparable to MFA in their evaluation of MFA in connection with developing their annual Say-on-Pay vote recommendation. The Compensation Committee notes that the peer group does not include externally managed mortgage REITs because comprehensive compensation data for their executives are generally not publicly available. In addition, the Compensation

| MFA Financial, Inc. | 36 | 2025 Proxy Statement |

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Committee has not included generally higher-paying private equity firms and hedge funds with which MFA must compete for executive talent. These organizations have not been included in the peer group because they have different business economics and pay models from ours and because comprehensive compensation data for these firms are generally not publicly available. With the above in mind, in the summer of 2024, the Compensation Committee, in consultation with its independent consultant, Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc. (“FW Cook”), identified the following companies against which Company performance would be compared and compensation practices would be reviewed (the majority of which are the same companies identified by the Compensation Committee to inform its 2023 compensation decisions):

| AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC)         |     | ​Mr. Cooper Group, Inc. (COOP)            |
| Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (ABR)       |     | ​New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYMT)     |
| BrightSpire Capital, Inc. (BRSP)     |     | ​PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. (PFSI) |
| Chimera Investment Corporation (CIM) |     | ​Redwood Trust, Inc. (RWT)                |
| ​Dynex Capital Inc. (DX)             |     | ​Two Harbors Investment Corp. (TWO)       |
| ​Granite Point Mortgage Trust (GPMT) |     | ​Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (WD