logo
Rocktop Technologies Acquires Incenter Capital Advisors to Expand MSR Market Reach and Deepen Data-Driven Capital Markets Capabilities

Rocktop Technologies Acquires Incenter Capital Advisors to Expand MSR Market Reach and Deepen Data-Driven Capital Markets Capabilities

Business Wire16-05-2025
IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rocktop Technologies LLC, a technology and AI-enabled Solutions as a Service firm with deep legal and mortgage capital markets expertise, today announced the acquisition of Incenter Capital Advisors, a leading firm that provides advisory services in the trading and pricing of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and post-transactional support in the transference of these assets.
'This acquisition raises the bar for transparency, execution, and performance in the mortgage capital markets,' said Brett Benson, Co-President and Chief Investment Officer, Rocktop Technologies.
This strategic transaction unites Rocktop's proprietary data and document infrastructure, AI-powered automation, and analytical platforms with Incenter Capital Advisors' deep MSR market expertise and advisory relationships built across decades.
'This acquisition raises the bar for transparency, execution, and performance in the mortgage capital markets,' said Brett Benson, Co-President and Chief Investment Officer, Rocktop Technologies. 'Incenter Capital Advisors' seasoned capital markets expertise and trusted relationships are a perfect match for Rocktop's data-first infrastructure and automation capabilities. Together, we can offer our clients a vertically integrated, technology-powered solution from trade idea to execution to portfolio surveillance.'
'By aligning Rocktop's strengths in data and document management, intelligent workflow automation, and AI-driven analytics with Incenter Capital Advisors' client-facing market execution, deep valuation expertise and data sets, we will create a powerful feedback loop between valuation intelligence, real-time market signals, and process efficiency. This will allow institutional mortgage investors to act more strategically—and more confidently—across the entire lifecycle of MSR and whole loan investing for best execution,' said Tom Piercy, Managing Director, Incenter Capital Advisors.
Rocktop Technologies is redefining the mortgage capital markets and servicing landscape through its integrated data management platform that delivers valuation, transaction management, and portfolio management outsourcing for institutional investors. The company's core differentiators include mortgage and fixed-income domain expertise, scalable document intelligence, default servicing process automation, and embedded AI capabilities designed to reduce friction, increase execution velocity, and provide full transparency into asset performance. The firm's customized solutions also prevent yield leakages during critical points in the lifecycle of mortgage and fixed-income assets due to errors, inefficiencies and problems accessing thorough and validated data.
Incenter Capital Advisors has established itself as a trusted partner by providing market participants with hands-on valuation consulting, hedging strategies, and transaction support services across billions of dollars in annual volume. Their experienced team operates as an extension of investor clients' internal capital markets efforts, leveraging market insight, modeling, and tactical execution to create value and liquidity in mortgage servicing portfolios.
For more information, see rocktop.io and incentercapitaladvisors.com.
About Rocktop Technologies
Rocktop Technologies is pioneering Solutions-as-a-Service in the fixed-income market, committed to enhancing returns for all stakeholders. Their innovative solutions strive to propel the industry towards strong form efficiency, ensuring every asset is a known quantity, enhancing liquidity, portability, and value. By harnessing data science, Practical AI, and digital ledger technology, they drive this mission forward, eliminating inefficiencies and errors that lead to yield leakage. Their solutions, empowered by comprehensive data management and process automation, streamline risk identification, quantification, and management. Explore more at rocktop.io.
About Incenter Capital Advisors
Incenter Capital Advisors exists for the sole purpose of helping clients drive stronger performance from capital markets-related strategies, decisions and activity. See incentercapitaladvisors.com.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Behind the Curtain: Your smarter fake friends
Behind the Curtain: Your smarter fake friends

Axios

time3 days ago

  • Axios

Behind the Curtain: Your smarter fake friends

Your fake friends are getting a lot smarter ... and realer. Why it matters: If you think those make-believe people on Facebook, Instagram and X — the bots — seem real and worrisome now, just wait. Soon, thanks to AI, those fake friends will analyze your feeds, emotions, and habits so they can interact with the same savvy as the realest of people. The next generation of bots will build psychological profiles on you — and potentially billions of others — and like, comment and interact the same as normal people. This'll demand even more vigilance in determining what — and who — is real in the digital world. A taste of the future: Brett Goldstein and Brett Benson — professors at Vanderbilt University who specialize in national and international security — show in vivid detail, in a recent New York Times op-ed, the looming danger of the increasingly savvy fake world. They dug through piles of documents uncovered by Vanderbilt's Institute of National Security, exposing how a Chinese company — GoLaxy — optimizes fake people to dupe and deceive. "What sets GoLaxy apart," the professors write, "is its integration of generative A.I. with enormous troves of personal data. Its systems continually mine social media platforms to build dynamic psychological profiles. Its content is customized to a person's values, beliefs, emotional tendencies and vulnerabilities." They add that according to the documents, AI personas "can then engage users in what appears to be a conversation — content that feels authentic, adapts in real-time and avoids detection. The result is a highly efficient propaganda engine that's designed to be nearly indistinguishable from legitimate online interaction, delivered instantaneously at a scale never before achieved." Between the lines: This makes Russia's bot farms look like the horse and buggy of online manipulation. We're talking real-time adaptations to match your moods, or desires, or beliefs — the very things that make most of us easy prey. The threat of smarter, more realistic fake friends transcends malicious actors trying to warp your sense of politics — or reality. It hits your most personal inner thoughts and struggles. State of play: AI is getting better, faster at mimicking human nuance, empathy and connection. Some states, including Utah and Illinois, are racing to limit AI therapy. But most aren't. So all of our fake friends are about to grow lots more plentiful. A Harvard Business Review study ($) earlier this year found the number one use case of chat-based generative AI is therapy ("structured support and guidance to process psychological challenges") and companionship ("social and emotional connection, sometimes with a romantic dimension"). AI-based therapy, the article notes, is "available 24/7, it's relatively inexpensive (even free to use in some cases), and it comes without the prospect of judgment from another human being." That research is congruent with what the biggest AI companies are finding: Humans are increasingly turning to AI to be buddies and shrinks. That brings a passel of possible problems — from unregulated robots offering bad advice, to unhealthy human attachment to an artificial thing. The Wall Street Journal found by examining public chat transcripts that bots sometimes egg on users' false premises. To go along with AI hallucination, clinicians are informally calling this phenomenon " AI psychosis" or "AI delusion." There's obvious upside, too: Loneliness can be deadly, and good therapy can do great things for someone struggling. Meta, as Axios reported in May, envisions chatbots as " more social" — potentially an extension of your friend network, and antidote to the " loneliness epidemic." What you can do: Be vigilant. This is all happening now. It's safe to assume AI only gets better, and bad actors more clever. Don't assume every person online is real — much less a real friend.

Lockheed Martin Wants To Bring Mars Rover's Samples To Earth If NASA Can't
Lockheed Martin Wants To Bring Mars Rover's Samples To Earth If NASA Can't

Yahoo

time06-08-2025

  • Yahoo

Lockheed Martin Wants To Bring Mars Rover's Samples To Earth If NASA Can't

Lockheed Martin has announced the details of a proposal to take over NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, tasked with retrieving the samples that the Perseverance rover on the red planet has already collected. These samples have great scientific value, including the possibility of the evidence of life. While originally conceived as an in-house job, NASA has since realized that its version of the plan would cost at least $7 billion, a figure sometimes known by its scientific name, "too much." That caused the space agency to solicit proposals for a cheaper solution back in 2024, including from Lockheed. In a press release, the venerable aerospace company has declared that it can get a couple of Mars rocks back to our planet for a "firm-fixed price" of less than $3 billion. It's going to accomplish that smaller cost by making everything, well, smaller. The lander (which sets down on Mars), ascent vehicle (which launches back out to space from the surface), and Earth entry system (which gets through Earth atmosphere on the voyage home) will all be downsized. Beyond the amount itself, the fact that the price is fixed ought to be appealing. NASA, bless its heart, has a habit of rocketing wildly over budget. Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in 2024 that the cost of MSR might have swelled as high as $11 billion, a figure sometimes known by its scientific name, "way too much." If Lockheed commits to the $3 billion price tag, that would be a welcome change. Assuming, of course, that it isn't forced to cut corners to do it. Read more: These Are Your Favorite Factory Exhaust Designs To Mars And Back Again Lockheed Martin does have some Martian experience. As it is happy to point out in its proposal, the company participated in every single mission to Mars in NASA's history, including designing and building half of all the spacecraft involved. It also operates all three of NASA's orbital craft around the red planet. Beyond Mars (how many companies can say "beyond Mars"?), Lockheed built all three return sample vehicles that NASA has used in other missions, including to and from an asteroid in the OSIRIS-REx mission. This is only a proposal for now. NASA needs to decide whether or not to choose it, but the space agency is in a weird place right now, with the Trump administration handing in its own proposal: Massive budget cuts across the board. Not impossible to imagine that the MSR mission will just be scrapped altogether, leaving Perseverance's samples to collect red dust with no point. Or will they? China wants to launch to launch a sample return mission of its own in 2028, and per Space News, it wants to invite other countries along for the ride. If NASA's samples are still sitting there, there's no real reason the Chinese, maybe with a little Russian support, couldn't snatch them for themselves. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.

Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Challenges with ...
Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Challenges with ...

Yahoo

time30-07-2025

  • Yahoo

Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Challenges with ...

Total Economic Return: Negative 14.5% including loss contingency accrual; minus 1.4% excluding the accrual. Book Value: Decreased to $12.14 per share. Comprehensive Loss: $221.8 million or $2.13 per share including accrual; $21.9 million or $0.21 per share excluding accrual. Net Interest and Servicing Income: Increased by $3.1 million. Loss Contingency Accrual: $199.9 million or $1.92 per share related to litigation. First Lien Originations: Funded $48 million UPB, a 68% increase from the first quarter. Second Liens: Brokered $44 million UPB in the quarter. MSR Portfolio: Purchased $6.4 billion UPB of MSR through three bulk purchases. Economic Debt-to-Equity: Increased to 7 times. Agency RMBS Portfolio: $14.4 billion including $11.4 billion in settled positions and $3 billion in TBAs. Unused MSR Asset Financing Capacity: $837 million. Senior Notes Issuance: $115 million aggregate principal amount of 9.375% senior notes due 2030. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with TWO. Release Date: July 29, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Positive Points Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO) experienced a significant recovery in the performance of Agency RMBS spreads as the macro environment improved. The company maintained a disciplined approach to risk, keeping interest rate and spread exposures low, and utilized leverage judiciously. Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO) increased its first lien originations by 68% quarter-over-quarter, outpacing the national trend. The company is investing in AI technologies to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences. Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO) has a strong platform and experienced team, positioning it well to navigate changing market cycles and create long-term value. Negative Points The company reported a total economic return of negative 14.5% for the second quarter, including a significant loss contingency accrual. Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO) faced a comprehensive loss of $221.8 million in the quarter, impacted by unfavorable market movements on MSR, swaps, TBAs, and futures. The company's leverage increased to 7 times, partly due to the litigation reserve, which may affect future portfolio actions. The ongoing litigation from the termination of the management agreement with PRCM Advisers in 2020 remains unresolved, with no trial date set. The MSR market supply has declined by about 30% year-over-year, potentially limiting opportunities for bulk purchases. Q & A Highlights Q: Your leverage increased this quarter due to the litigation reserve. Is this the new level of leverage we should expect, or are there more portfolio actions to adjust it? A: Nicholas Letica, Chief Investment Officer, explained that the leverage of 7 times is within their historical range of 5% to 8%. They increased leverage due to attractive market conditions and feel comfortable with the current level. The leverage might adjust based on market opportunities and capital base. Q: Can you provide an update on economic return performance so far in July? A: William Greenberg, President and CEO, stated that quarter-to-date through last Friday, they were up about 1.5% in economic return on the new book value. Q: What are the main differences between the expected returns on slide 15 and the EAD metric? A: William Greenberg explained that EAD is based on historical purchase yields, while the return outlook reflects forward-looking mark-to-market yields at current prices. The expected returns account for potential fluctuations in prepayments, funding spreads, and leverage. Q: Could you comment on your risk appetite and any changes in rate or spread exposure? A: Nicholas Letica noted that their rate exposure is virtually unchanged quarter-over-quarter, and spread risk is also stable. They find mortgage spreads attractive and are comfortable with their current risk levels, given the low spread volatility and supportive market conditions. Q: Can you discuss your financing strategy and the shift from repo to unsecured financing this quarter? A: William Dellal, CFO, explained that the issuance of the unsecured baby bond was to prefinance the maturity of convertible notes and some warehouse lines. This change is part of their strategy to manage upcoming maturities. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store