UWM (United Wholesale Mortgage) is the largest residential mortgage lender in the U.S., operating exclusively through the wholesale channel. Rather than lending directly to borrowers, UWM works with roughly 13,000 independent mortgage broker businesses, who originate and own the borrower relationship while UWM underwrites, funds, and closes the loan. UWM originates primarily conventional conforming loans and government-backed loans (FHA, VA, USDA), with a heavy skew toward purchase mortgages, which management argues provides more consistent volume across rate cycles than a refinance-heavy book. UWM makes money two ways: gain on sale (the spread between the loan's interest rate and the price received when selling into the secondary market via Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae pools) and mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), which generate recurring servicing fee income on the outstanding loan balance. These two revenue streams naturally hedge each other — when rates fall, origination volumes and margins rise; when rates rise, MSR values increase and prepayments slow. UWM currently sub-services its ~$241B UPB portfolio through Cenlar but is transitioning to in-house servicing by end of 2026, which management expects to save $40M–$100M annually and improve broker retention. UWM holds roughly 42.5% of the wholesale channel and argues its cost structure is largely fixed, creating significant operating leverage on volume increases. UWM is investing in proprietary AI tools — including BOLT (automated underwriting), Mia (AI outbound calling for brokers), and LEO (loan pricing optimizer) — to widen its competitive moat with broker partners.