Company: MFAN
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-014577
Chunk: 42

Company: MFA FINANCIAL, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 42
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 view that compensation decisions are complex and best made after a deliberative review of Company and individual performance, as well as industry compensation levels. Consistent with this view, the Compensation Committee assesses our performance within the context of the industry’s overall performance and internal performance standards and evaluates individual executive officer performance relative to the performance expectations for each such individual’s respective position, role and responsibilities within MFA. Compensation Benchmarking/Use of Peer Groups The Compensation Committee benchmarks from time to time the compensation levels and practices relating to our Named Executive Officers and other executive officers against industry-based compensation levels and practices. While it is the Compensation Committee’s goal to provide compensation opportunities that reflect Company and individual performance and that are competitive within industry standards, the Compensation Committee has not established a specific target market percentile for executive officer pay levels, as pay practices and compensation levels among participants in our industry can vary significantly from one year to the next such that the use of a specific target market position would not necessarily reflect the Compensation Committee’s assessment of performance as the primary driver of pay levels. The Compensation Committee has, in general, undertaken an annual review of MFA’s peer group methodology. The Compensation Committee has engaged in these reviews in part because it historically had been difficult to develop a peer group for executive compensation purposes in the residential mortgage REIT sector due to the significant number of companies in the sector that were, until the last few years, externally advised. These externally advised companies had few, if any, employees that were compensated directly and/or fully by the REIT. Rather, such persons’ compensation was paid by the external manager of the REIT, and as a result, the REIT itself was required to disclose publicly little to no compensation information regarding its executives. Furthermore, the Compensation Committee believed that any peer group for compensation purposes that was comprised solely of internally advised residential mortgage REITs would not have been a large enough group to provide meaningful comparative information. In light of the “internalization” of several residential mortgage REITs over the past few years, additional compensation information has become available for the Compensation Committee to consider as it makes decisions regarding the structure, design and pay levels of our executive compensation program. Nonetheless, a significant number of companies in the residential mortgage REIT sector continue to remain externally advised, which limits the amount of compensation information that is available to inform the Compensation Committee. Because of the limited compensation information available for mortgage REITs, the Compensation Committee has developed a peer group that extends beyond mortgage REITs. This peer group also includes a number of other real