CEO Mat Ishbia and other top executives at United Wholesale Mortgage Holdings Corp. took pay cuts last year, even as the company became the top overall lender in the United States.
According to documents filed annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ishbia’s total compensation in 2022 was $6.99 million, down 10.5% from $7.81 million a year earlier. His compensation decline in part was due to a 21% drop in non-equity incentive plan compensation, from $6.64 million last year to $5.25 million this year.
His compensation also included, however, a significant increase in all other compensation, which more than doubled to $1.14 million last year from $568,350 in 2021. According to the document, all but $2,500 of the amount for all other compensation last year was related to “security services and equipment.”
Other top executives also took pay cuts last year, including:
- Melinda Wilner, executive vice president and chief operating officer, received total compensation of $5.11 million in 2022, down nearly 12% from $5.8 million in 2021.
- Alex Elezaj, EVP and chief strategy officer, received total compensation in 2022 of $5.1 million, down 5.4% from $5.36 million; and
- Laura Lawson, EVP and chief people officer, received total compensation of $1.94 million in 2022, down 22.4% from $2.5 million last year.
It should be noted that UWM EVP and CFO Tim Forrester died in July last year, and was succeeded by Andrew Hubacker. Hubacker received total compensation of $480,613 in 2022, including a base salary of $270,000.
While UWM reported net income for all of 2022 of $931.9 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, it reported a net loss in the fourth quarter of $62.5 million, or 3 cents per diluted share.
The pay cuts at UWM are in sharp contrast to the significant raises paid to top executives last year at its intrastate rival, Rocket Companies. Rocket boosted its top executives’ compensation by at least 192%. That included a 491% increase for CEO Jay Farner, who is retiring on June 1.
UWM claimed an eye-opening 54% share of the wholesale channel in the fourth quarter of 2022, up from 41% in the previous quarter, and an 11% share of the overall mortgage market.
It has reigned as the largest wholesale mortgage lender in the U.S. by closed loan volume for eight years in a row, with approximately a 38% market share of the wholesale channel for the full year ended Dec. 31. It achieved an 8% share of the overall mortgage market in 2022.
Still, the company reduced its staff through attrition, last year, shrinking its workforce by 2,600 employees, or about 30%, in 2022.
