Here at San Diego’s MCT Exchange 2026, the hallway chatter is varied. These are capital markets personnel, so things are pragmatic. One topic is Freddie Mac’s earnings: $2.8 billion in income for the fourth quarter of 2025 and $10.7 billion for 2025. Another is large companies becoming larger, exemplified by Tradeweb making an investment in MAXEX and by yesterday’s news of Pennymac entering into an agreement to acquire subservicer Cenlar (sponsor of this week’s podcasts with its 2 million loans). In fact, today’s podcast includes an interview with Pennymac’s Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Ryan on the acquisition of Cenlar. Yup, there’s no reason to think that the big won’t keep getting bigger in 2026, as has been mentioned many times in this Commentary. Credit score policy changes, political whipsawing, tariffs and their impact on the economy, new technology releases, and trends with correspondent investors are just part of the agenda, as they are with many other conferences in the coming weeks. Where lenders are prioritizing their resources in 2026 is important, and on today’s The Big Picture at noon PT Natalie Lanham, President & CFO of Willow Bend Mortgage, will be discussing that as well as single credit score implementation. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are Sponsored by Cenlar. Cenlar supports lenders and investors with scalable, best-in-class loan servicing built for today’s complex market. From compliance to customer experience, Cenlar helps portfolios perform better, borrowers stay supported, and servicers focus on growth. We’re proud to partner with a true industry leader. Hear an interview with Kastle’s Rishi Choudhary on how AI agents are moving from hype to real impact in mortgage lending and servicing by automating unstructured, high-friction borrower interactions at scale, delivering measurable ROI through lower servicing costs, higher loan officer productivity, and production-proven deployments.)