CHIMERA INVESTMENT CORP (CIM) Business

Item 1. Business

The Company

We are a diversified real estate company that invests in, originates, and manages primarily residential real estate assets. The assets we may invest in and manage for others, through our wholly-owned subsidiary Palisades Advisory Services LLC (“PAS”), include residential mortgage loans, Non-Agency RMBS, Agency RMBS, business purpose loans (including RTLs) and investor loans, MSRs and other real estate-related assets such as Agency CMBS, junior liens and HELOCs, equity appreciation rights, and reverse mortgages. Also, through our wholly-owned subsidiary, HomeXpress Mortgage Corp. (“HomeXpress”), we originate consumer Non-QM and investor business purpose residential mortgage loans as well as QM residential mortgage loans. Chimera Investment Corporation was incorporated in Maryland on June 1, 2007 and started trading on the NYSE in November 2007, and is structured as an internally managed real estate investment trust (REIT) for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

Acquisition of HomeXpress Mortgage Corp.

On October 1, 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of HomeXpress (the “HomeXpress Acquisition”) for total consideration of $272 million, which consisted of (i) cash of $124 million, representing the Adjusted Book Value of HomeXpress as of September 30, 2025, (ii) cash premium of $120 million, and (iii) issuance of 2,077,151 shares of the Company's common stock. As a result of the HomeXpress Acquisition, the Company began originating consumer Non-QM, investor business purpose, and other mortgage loan products through its subsidiary, HomeXpress during the fourth quarter.

In 2025, the Company reevaluated its composition and the number of our reportable segments based on changes in the significance of certain business activities, including the HomeXpress Acquisition. As a result of this reevaluation, the Company reports as two reportable segments: (i) Investment Portfolio, and (ii) Residential Origination. The Investment Portfolio segment consists of the Company’s investments and third-party advisory services activities. The Residential Origination segment consists of the stand-alone mortgage origination business of HomeXpress that originates consumer Non-QM, investor business purpose, and other Non-Agency and Agency mortgage loan products.

Our Business Strategy

Our principal business objectives are to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns and distributable income through investment performance linked to mortgage credit fundamentals and to grow our enterprise value of time. Through our mortgage lending, investment management, and advisory services platforms, we operate as a fully integrated mortgage business that originates, manages, and invests in a diversified range of mortgage assets. We invest, directly or indirectly, generally on a levered basis across a spectrum of mortgage assets, including residential mortgage loans, Non-Agency RMBS, Agency RMBS, Agency CMBS, MSRs, business purpose and investor loans, including RTLs, and other real estate-related assets. Net interest income from our investment portfolio is the interest income we earn on investments less the interest expense we incur on borrowed funds. In addition, we generate income from our third-party investment management and advisory services. Currently, the primary sources of such income are the fees we receive from institutions for our non-discretionary investment management and advisory services less the cost of providing such services. In the future, an additional source of fees and incentive based income may be from our investment management and advisory services provided on a discretionary basis through investment funds that we manage (the “Discretionary Funds”). Through our subsidiary, HomeXpress, we originate consumer Non-QM, investor business purpose, and other Non-Agency and Agency mortgage loan products. HomeXpress primarily generates income from the origination and sale of its mortgage loan products and, to a lesser degree, the interest on its loans held for sale.

We plan to execute our business strategy through a combination of organic and external growth, depending on opportunities and market conditions. In addition to our strategy of building a durable portfolio of residential mortgage assets, we intend to continue to grow our fee income and enterprise value by growing our existing operational platforms as well as looking for opportunities to acquire additional operating platforms, including entities that originate or service mortgage loans, and other businesses, partnerships or investments that could enhance our business activities and returns to our shareholders through diversification of revenue and growth of our enterprise value. Additional loan origination growth for HomeXpress is expected to be realized primarily from further development of its existing wholesale origination network but also from the growth in its recent implementation of a non-delegated correspondent channel for consumer Non-QM and investor business purpose loans and expansion of its FHA, VA and conventional agency-conforming lending. We also plan to source additional assets for investment in the Chimera portfolio to our managed portfolios as well as adding gains on the origination and sale of the loans that HomeXpress originates. We believe that our strategy of generating income from our portfolio along with fees and incentive-based income from our third-party investment management and advisory services and loan origination business, while remaining open to opportunities to enhance these activities, will provide us an opportunity to pay dividends throughout changing market cycles and grow our share price over time through increasing our enterprise value.

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Our Investment Strategy

We selectively invest in residential mortgage assets with a focus on credit analysis and risk management. Our risk management approach emphasizes asset-level credit performance, prepayment and interest rate sensitivity. We make investment decisions based on various factors, including expected cash yield, relative value, risk-adjusted returns, credit fundamentals, macroeconomic considerations, supply and demand dynamics, credit and market risk concentration limits, liquidity, cost of financing and financing availability. Our investment strategy is intended to take advantage of opportunities in the current interest rate and credit environment. We adjust our strategy in response to changing market conditions by shifting our asset allocations across various asset classes as interest rate and credit cycles change over time. Subject to maintaining our REIT status and exemption from registration under the 1940 Act, we do not have any limitations on the amounts we may invest in any of our targeted asset classes for our own account. Investments made on behalf of the Discretionary Funds are subject to any investment limitations and guidelines set forth in the related constituent documentation, including the offering documents and the limited partnership agreements of the Discretionary Funds.

We use leverage to increase potential returns from our investments. Our income is generated primarily by the difference, or net spread, between the income we earn on our assets and the cost of our borrowings. We expect to finance our investments using a variety of financing sources, including securitizations, secured borrowings through the use of warehouse facilities and repurchase agreements, and the issuance of debt and equity capital. We may seek to manage our debt and interest rate risk by utilizing interest rate hedges, such as interest rate swaps, caps, options and futures to reduce the effect of interest rate fluctuations related to our financing sources.

During 2025, we focused on diversifying the portfolio and repositioning the Company as a diversified, vertically integrated residential real estate platform. To execute on these objectives, we exercised redemption rights with respect to several securitized transactions and raised capital organically through re-securitizations of the underlying mortgage loans and loan sales to third parties. We also raised capital through monetizing certain fully valued assets as well as through the issuance of senior unsecured debt. These activities provided the capital necessary as we expanded our platform and mortgage lending capabilities through the acquisition of HomeXpress, increased our allocation to liquid Agency RMBS, made our first investment in MSRs, and began to reshape our allocation of capital, investment mix, and sources of income and earnings.

In 2026, we intend to continue our investment focus on active portfolio management, capital allocation discipline, and risk management in light of ongoing market uncertainty. This includes seeking to position the portfolio with a focus on liquidity, financing flexibility, and moderate leverage levels to maintain the capacity to provide capital and liquidity opportunistically across market conditions. We also remain attentive to potential business acquisition opportunities that align with our strategy.

We plan to monetize assets that we believe are fully valued or where relative value has diminished, and to redeploy capital toward investments that we believe offer more attractive risk-adjusted returns consistent with our long-term portfolio objectives. Subject to capital availability, we may seek to further diversify the portfolio, including maintaining and, where appropriate, increasing our allocation to liquid Agency MBS, selectively adding to our MSR investments to offset interest rate exposure in other portfolio segments, and pursuing investments that align with our long-term return and risk parameters.

In addition, we also intend to seek to add direct partnerships with lenders as a means to source investments, and we will continue to work closely with our mortgage lending platform, HomeXpress, which serves as an important component of our investment and capital allocation strategy. The platform provides loan production capabilities, market insight, and asset sourcing channels that support loan sale activity, portfolio investment and earnings diversification objectives. We believe this integrated approach enhances our ability to evaluate relative value across origination and secondary markets, manage capital deployment, and respond to changing market conditions.

We expect to continue financing our investments using a variety of sources, and as part of our overall strategy, may continue to finance a portion of our loan portfolio with long-term secured facilities.

When we securitize mortgage loans, we typically retain the most subordinate classes of securities, which means we are the first-loss security holder. Losses on any residential mortgage loan securing our RMBS will be borne first by the owner of the property (i.e., the owner will first lose any equity invested in the property) and, thereafter, by us as the first-loss security holder, and then by holders of more senior securities. In addition, most of these subordinate securities are subject to the Dodd-Frank Act and related laws and regulations relating to credit risk retention for securitizations, (the “Risk Retention Rules”) which significantly limits the liquidity of these securities. See “ Risk Factors - Risks Associated with Our Investments - A significant portion of our investments are in Non-Agency RMBS that are the most subordinate securities in securitizations, making us the first-loss security holder, which means these securities are subject to significant credit risk, are illiquid, and are difficult to value.” discussion in Item 1A “Risk Factors” section for more details. We generally finance these subordinate securities with

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secured financing agreements. The securities we do not retain are typically sold through securities underwriters. Other than the Risk Retention Rules, there is no limit on the amount we may retain of these below-investment-grade subordinate certificates.

Our Securitization Programs

We currently have the following five securitization programs:

•Our “R” program securitizes seasoned RPLs, whether newly acquired from a third party or upon the exercise of our redemption rights, in a Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (“REMIC”) transaction;

•Our “NR” program securitizes seasoned residential mortgage loans that are not eligible to be securitized in REMIC, transactions;

•Our “I” program securitizes Non-Agency eligible investor mortgage loans;

•Our “J” program securitizes jumbo prime residential mortgage loans; and

•Our “INV” program securitizes Agency-eligible investor mortgage loans.

We did not sponsor any securitizations under our “J” and “INV” programs during the year ended December 31, 2025.

“R” and “NR” Non-Rated Programs. The securities issued in our “R” and “NR” securitizations are generally not rated and are subject to the Risk Retention Rules. In these programs, we typically sell the senior securities to an unrelated third party and retain the subordinate securities, which include the first-loss securities which are subject to the Risk Retention Rules, and the IOs. During 2025, we sponsored one “R” securitization and one “NR” securitization. We are generally required under GAAP to consolidate the assets and liabilities of the “NR” and “R” securitization entities for financial reporting purposes. Each of the consolidated entities is independent of us and of each other, and the assets and liabilities of these entities are not owned by us or legal obligations of ours, respectively, although we are exposed to certain financial risks associated with any role we carry out for these entities (e.g., as sponsor, depositor or asset manager) and, to the extent we hold securities issued by, or other investments in, these entities, we are exposed to the performance of these entities and the assets they hold. PAS, our wholly-owned asset management capability, served as asset manager on each of these two securitizations.

“I” Programs. The securities issued in our “I” securitizations are rated by one or more nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations and are subject to the Risk Retention Rules. In these programs, we typically sell the senior securities to an unrelated third party and retain the subordinate securities, which include the first-loss securities which are subject to the Risk Retention Rules, and the IOs. We are generally required under GAAP to consolidate the assets and liabilities of the “I” securitization entities for financial reporting purposes. During 2025, we sponsored one “I” securitization.

The table below sets forth certain information about our “R”, “NR”, and “I” securitizations we completed during the year ended December 31, 2025.

(1) For certain of the above securitization deals, we retained certain IO and/or excess servicing classes.

(2) At the time of issuance.

Our Investment Portfolio Segment

As of December 31, 2025, based on the fair value of our interest earning assets, approximately 65% of our investment portfolio was allocated to residential mortgage loans, 23% to Agency MBS, 5% to Non-Agency RMBS and less than 1% to interests in MSR financing receivables (excluding loans held for sale by HomeXpress). As of December 31, 2025, based on the fair value of our interest earning assets approximately 6% of our portfolio capital was allocated to loans held for sale. As of December 31, 2024, based on the fair value of our interest earning assets, approximately 88% of our investment portfolio was allocated to residential mortgage loans, 4% to Agency RMBS, and 8% to Non-Agency RMBS.

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The following briefly discusses the principal types of investments that we have made and may in the future make:

Residential Mortgage Loans

We invest in residential mortgage loans through secondary market purchases from banks, non-bank financial institutions, lenders, originators, and the Agencies, and we may choose to retain loans originated by HomeXpress, our wholly owned lending subsidiary acquired in 2025. These loans may include reperforming mortgage loans, RTLs, investor loans, prime jumbo loans, Non-QM loans, junior lien loans and other types of loans secured by residential real property.

As of December 31, 2025, our residential mortgage loan portfolio is comprised primarily of seasoned reperforming residential mortgage loans, along with investments in jumbo prime loans, investor loans and business purpose loans (including RTLs).

Our seasoned reperforming loans are loans that have been previously delinquent or in default and returned to performing status as a result of sustained borrower payment performance, typically following a loan modification, repayment plan, or other foreclosure prevention activity. The majority of our seasoned reperforming loan portfolio consists of loans that were originated prior to 2010.

Our business purpose loans, or RTLs, are loans to businesses that are secured by real property where the proceeds are generally used by the borrower to acquire and renovate the property. Upon completion of the renovation, the borrower will typically either (i) sell the property, or (ii) refinance and retain the property as a portfolio rental. Most, but not all, of the properties securing our RTLs are residential, and a portion of the loan is used to cover renovation costs. Our RTLs are included as a part of our loans held for investment portfolio and are carried at fair value. Our RTLs tend to be short duration, often less than one year, and generally the coupon rate is higher than other traditional residential mortgage loan products, which we believe are good asset traits in times of rate volatility. Currently, we do not use term securitization to finance RTLs, but we may evaluate term securitization in the future as a means of financing the portfolio.

Our investor loans are made to individuals securing non-primary residences as well as to individuals or businesses who rent the residential properties secured by such loans. We invest in loans that are eligible for sale to one or more of the Agencies as well as loans that are not eligible for sale to either of the Agencies. In both cases, with respect to our investment portfolio, we securitize the investor loans as part of our loan securitization program.

Our jumbo prime loans are residential mortgage loans made to creditworthy borrowers that exceed the conforming loan limits established by the FHFA and therefore are not eligible for purchase or guarantee by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. These loans are generally underwritten to traditional prime credit standards, including strong borrower credit profiles, documented income and assets, and conservative LTV ratios, but are classified as non-conforming due solely to their loan size.

Our recently acquired mortgage origination unit, HomeXpress, primary originates consumer Non-QM and investor business purpose loans. Non-QM loans are residential mortgage loans that may not meet the standards required for classification as qualified mortgages under the CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay Rule which requires a creditor to make a reasonable, good faith determination of a consumer’s ability to repay a residential mortgage loan according to its terms. These loans may feature alternative income documentation, higher debt-to-income ratios, or other non-traditional underwriting characteristics, while generally remaining in compliance with applicable consumer protection and disclosure requirements. We may evaluate from time to time opportunities to retain consumer Non-QM and investor business purpose loans originated by HomeXpress and securitize those loans in Company sponsored securitization transactions.

We primarily use securitization to finance our investments in residential mortgage loans. However, in certain instances we may retain them in our portfolio as loans held for investment. Until we securitize our residential mortgage loans, we finance our residential mortgage loan portfolio through warehouse facilities and repurchase agreements, as discussed under “Our Financing Strategy” below.

Third-party servicers service the mortgage loans in our portfolio. We conduct a due diligence review of each servicer before the servicer is retained and periodically thereafter. The duties of servicers are generally required to be performed in accordance with industry-accepted servicing practices and the terms of the relevant servicing agreement, mortgage note and applicable law. In the future, however, subject to obtaining the requisite licenses and approvals, we may elect to service mortgage loans and other types of assets.

We engage third parties to perform independent reviews of the mortgage files to assess the credit underwriting and adherence to compliance at origination with respect to the mortgage loans, as well as our ability to enforce the lien on the related mortgaged

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properties. We typically review all of the loans we acquire. However, in certain circumstances we may select loans for diligence review utilizing risk-based sampling criteria such as property location, loan size, LTV ratio, borrower’s credit score, delinquency status and history and other criteria we believe to be important indicators of credit risk. We typically obtain representations and warranties with respect to the mortgage loans from each seller, including with respect to the origination and servicing of the mortgage loans as well as the enforceability of the lien on the related mortgaged properties. If any of the representations and warranties with respect to a mortgage loan we acquire are breached, the related seller may be obligated to repurchase the loan from us.

Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities

We invest in mortgage pass-through certificates issued or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which are securities representing interests in “pools” of mortgage loans secured by residential real properties where payments of both interest and principal, plus pre-paid principal, on the securities are made monthly to holders of the security, in effect passing through monthly payments made by the individual borrowers on the mortgage loans that underlie the securities, net of fees paid to the issuer/guarantor and servicers of the securities. We may also invest in Agency CMOs. Agency CMOs consist of multiple classes of securities, with each class bearing different stated maturity dates.

Monthly payments of principal, including prepayments, are first returned to investors holding the shortest maturity class; investors holding the longer maturity classes receive principal only after the first class has been retired.

We also invest in investment grade, non-investment grade and non-rated Non-Agency RMBS, which are typically certificates created by the securitization of a pool of mortgage loans that are collateralized by residential real estate properties. The respective bond class sizes are determined based on the review of the underlying collateral, the security’s cash flow priorities and credit enhancement. The payments received from the underlying loans are used to make the payments on the RMBS. Based on the payment priorities, the risk of nonpayment for the most senior, or investment grade, RMBS is lower than the risk of nonpayment for the most junior, or non-investment grade, bonds. Accordingly, the investment grade class is typically sold at a lower yield compared to the non-investment grade or unrated classes which are sold at higher yields. In addition to the Non-Agency RMBS structure and cash flow priorities, we evaluate numerous credit characteristics of the underlying mortgage loans, including, but not limited to, loan balance distribution, geographic concentration, property type, occupancy, adjustable interest rate periodic and lifetime caps, LTV characteristics and FICO score distributions. Qualifying securities are then analyzed using base line expectations of expected voluntary prepayments, involuntary defaults, and loss severities based on the collateral characteristics along with expectations surrounding the current state of credit markets and the broader economy in general. Defaults, losses and prepayments are stressed simultaneously based on a credit risk-based model. Securities in this portfolio are monitored for variance from expected prepayments, defaults, loss severities, losses and cash flow. The due diligence process is particularly important and costly with respect to newly formed originators or issuers because there may be little or no information publicly available about these entities and investments. We may also invest in Agency RMBS and Non-Agency RMBS. These IO RMBS represent the right to receive a specified proportion of the contractual interest cash flows of the underlying mortgage loans.

Other Real Estate-Related Assets

We may invest in MSRs, which are the rights to service a pool of residential mortgage loans in exchange for a portion of the interest payments on such loans. We may invest in MSRs either through excess servicing rights or the entire MSR. In an excess servicing rights transaction, we would purchase from a servicer a portion of the servicing fee that exceeds the amount needed by the servicer to provide the servicer an acceptable return. Such transactions are similar to acquiring a senior IO from a securitization trust. We may also acquire the entire MSR from a servicer, which would require that we obtain certain mortgage servicing licenses which we currently do not have. In addition, if we do obtain such licenses in the future and acquire MSRs, we may choose to perform the servicing ourselves or retain third-party servicers to service the loans for us. We believe that acquiring MSRs, whether excess or the entirety, provides a hedge for our mortgage loan portfolio and thus helps stabilize our book value through various interest rate environments.

We may invest in commercial mortgage loans consisting of first or second lien loans secured by multifamily properties, which are residential rental properties consisting of five or more dwelling units, or by mixed residential or other commercial properties, retail properties, office properties or industrial properties. These loans may or may not conform to the Agency guidelines.

We may invest in securities issued in various CDO, offerings to gain exposure to bank loans, corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, mortgages, RMBS, CMBS, and other instruments. We may also invest in other mortgage and real estate-related products, such as junior lien loans, home equity lines of credit, home equity option or shared appreciation contracts, reverse

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mortgage loans, single-family rental properties, credit risk transfer securities, home improvement loans, and/or manufactured housing loans. These investments may complement our primary investment strategies by diversifying our portfolio and potentially enhancing risk-adjusted returns.

We may invest in Non-Agency CMBS, which are secured by, or evidence ownership interests in, a single commercial mortgage loan or a pool of mortgage loans secured by commercial properties. These securities may be senior, subordinated, investment grade or non-investment grade. We may, and in the past we did, invest in Agency CMBS. The Agency CMBS we have acquired are Ginnie Mae Construction Loan Certificates (“CLCs”) and the resulting project loan certificates, when the construction project is complete. Each CLC is backed by a single multifamily property or health care facility.

We have an investment in a limited partnership managed by a third-party registered investment advisor. The limited partnership invests in REIT eligible assets, primarily residential assets. We may make other similar investments as well as invest in operational platforms, including but not limited to entities that originate or service mortgage loans.

Investment Guidelines

We have adopted a set of investment guidelines that set out the asset classes, risk tolerance levels, diversification requirements and other criteria used to evaluate the merits of specific investments as well as the overall portfolio composition. Our investment committee periodically reviews the appropriateness of our investment guidelines and related compliance. Our Board of Directors and its committees also review our investment portfolio and related compliance with our investment policies and procedures and investment guidelines at regularly scheduled meetings.

Our Board of Directors and its committees have adopted guidelines for our investments and borrowings, including the following:

•No investment shall be made that would cause us to fail to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes;

•No investment shall be made that would cause us to be required to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act;

•No investment or hedging activity shall be made that would require us to register as a commodity pool or commodity pool operator under the Commodity Act;

•With the exception of real estate and real estate related assets, no single industry shall represent greater than 20% of the securities or aggregate risk exposure in our portfolio; and

•Investments in non-rated or deeply subordinated MBS or other securities that are non-qualifying assets for purposes of the 75% REIT asset test will be limited to an amount not to exceed 50% of our stockholders’ equity.

Our Residential Origination Segment

Business Strategy

HomeXpress is a specialty mortgage lender focused primarily on providing consumer Non-QM loans and investor business purpose solutions to the residential housing market on a national basis through mortgage brokers and bankers. These loans are designed for borrowers who do not meet traditional qualified mortgage standards and documentation requirements and typically carry higher interest rates and offer more flexible solutions for potential borrowers. HomeXpress originates these residential mortgage loans primarily on a wholesale basis through independent mortgage brokers. HomeXpress currently sells all the loans it originates on a servicing-released basis to third-party institutional investors for cash premiums. Warehouse financing is used by HomeXpress to fund these loans from origination through sale. HomeXpress originated and acquired approximately $3.4 billion and $2.5 billion in total mortgage loans in 2025 and 2024, respectively. Substantially all these loans were consumer Non-QM and investor business purpose loans with approximately 2.5% of the 2025 total loan production being FHA, VA and conventional agency-conforming loans.

HomeXpress’ loan origination strategy is focused on providing consistent high-quality service to its network of independent mortgage brokers and bankers and having an agile and responsive approach to shifts in market demand for its loan products, institutional investor appetite and regulatory environments. We expect continued growth in loan originations and acquisitions to come from further penetration of HomeXpress’ existing independent mortgage brokers network and the development of new relationships with them and non-delegated correspondent lenders. Our business strategy is also focused on driving loan origination process and operational efficiencies through our customized technology and risk assessment framework so that we can control and enhance the cost of originating our loans.

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Capital Markets Strategy

Our capital markets and treasury functions emphasize maximizing loan sale profitability and liquidity while at the same time minimizing operational, interest rate, and market risks. We seek to manage the interest rate risk for the business with interest rate lock management policies and treasury procedures, hedging the loan origination pipeline, managing warehouse facilities and the associated facility utilization, and maintaining appropriate cash balances. We aggregate our loan production into pools that are sold outright to investors in the secondary mortgage market on a servicing-released basis. The goal of our capital markets activity is to protect margin at origination, and to maximize execution at sale. This includes the operational objective of quickly aggregating and selling pools of the loans we originate to make efficient use of our capital and warehouse facilities.

Our Financing Strategy on Investment Portfolio and Residential Origination

We use leverage to fund investments, manage liquidity, improve capital efficiency, support the implementation of our investment strategies, and increase potential returns to our stockholders. At December 31, 2025 and 2024, our ratio of debt-to-equity was 5.1:1 and 4.0:1, respectively, reflecting the increased allocation to liquid Agency RMBS. For purposes of calculating this ratio, our equity is equal to the total stockholders’ equity on our Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition, and our debt consists of securitized debt, long-term debt, and secured financing agreements.

Investment Portfolio

Our Investment Portfolio segment is not required to maintain any specific debt-to-equity ratio as we believe the appropriate leverage for the particular assets our Investment Portfolio segment is financing depends on the credit quality and risk of those assets. Subject to maintaining our qualification as a REIT, we may use a variety of sources to finance our investments, including the following primary sources:

•Securitization. A significant element of our financing strategy is to acquire or retain residential mortgage loans for our portfolio with the intention of securitizing them. In our securitizations, we generally create subordinate certificates, providing a specified amount of credit enhancement, which we intend or are required under the Risk Retention Rules to retain in our portfolio. However, we may also choose to sponsor securitizations where we retain a portion of the issued securities, known as vertical risk retention. We have acquired and may in the future acquire Non-Agency RMBS for our portfolio with the intention of exercising the call rights and re-securitizing the underlying mortgage loans and retaining a portion of the re-securitized Non-Agency RMBS in our portfolio, typically the subordinate certificates.

•Secured Financing Agreements. Secured financing agreements include all non-securitization financing arrangements and are generally, but not always, for shorter terms. Our secured financing agreements are primarily comprised of repurchase agreements.

•Warehouse Facilities. We have utilized and may in the future utilize credit facilities for capital needed to fund our assets. We seek to maintain formal relationships with multiple counterparties to maintain warehouse lines on favorable terms.

•Repurchase Agreements. We have financed certain of our assets through repurchase agreements. We anticipate that repurchase agreements will be one of the sources we will use to achieve our desired amount of leverage for our investments. We seek to maintain formal relationships with many counterparties with the intent to obtain financing on the most favorable terms available while diversifying counterparty credit risk.

We maintain a portion of our financing in non-MTM facilities and limited MTM to finance a portion of our Non-Agency RMBS, including risk retention securities. The percentage of our financing allocated to such facilities will vary depending on market conditions. We believe that non-MTM facilities will continue to be a material portion of our financing strategy. We may also seek financing through capital markets offerings when appropriate.

Residential Origination

With respect to HomeXpress, we use warehouse facilities to fund newly originated loans. HomeXpress has a total of seven warehouse facilities, three of which are non-MTM, with a borrowing capacity of $1.4 billion. As of December 31, 2025, there was an outstanding balance of $802 million. The financing agreements include requirements to maintain specific debt-to-equity,

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liquidity levels, and other financial ratios. As of December 31, 2025, HomeXpress was in compliance will all terms and conditions associated with its warehouse facilities.

Our Interest Rate Hedging and Risk Management Strategy

Investment Portfolio Segment

We use derivative financial instruments to hedge a portion of the interest rate risk associated with our borrowings. Under the U.S. federal income tax laws applicable to REITs, we generally enter certain transactions to hedge indebtedness that we incur, or plan to incur, with respect to acquiring or carrying real estate assets.

We may engage in a variety of interest rate management techniques that seek to mitigate changes in interest rates or other potential influences on the values of our assets. Our interest rate management techniques may include:

•interest rate caps, swaps and swaptions;

•puts and calls on securities or indices of securities;

•Swap futures contracts and options on such contracts;

•U.S. Treasury futures, forward contracts, other derivative contracts and options on U.S. Treasury securities; and

•other similar transactions.

We may attempt to reduce interest rate risks and to minimize exposure to interest rate fluctuations through term securitization financing structures, when appropriate. Term securitizations generally do not expose our portfolio to margin call or liquidity risk and tend to create a more durable portfolio. However, the duration of the securitized debt is typically less than the duration of the underlying mortgage loan assets, and the securitization may contain economic incentives for us to exercise our call rights at some point in the future. The duration mismatch may cause refinancing risk and we may seek to hedge this risk as part of our interest rate hedge strategy.

Residential Origination

HomeXpress operates a daily hedging program that utilizes financial instruments (2-year and 5-year U.S. Treasury futures) in an effort to protect its operational results from interest rate risk. The program covers loans from the day the IRLC is issued through the day a loan is committed for sale to an investor. As of December 31, 2025, HomeXpress had hedging instruments with a notional amount of $173 million.

Operational and Regulatory Structure

REIT Qualification

We have elected to be treated as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. In order to maintain our qualification as a REIT, we must comply with the requirements under federal tax law, including the requirement that we distribute at least 90% of our annual REIT taxable income (subject to certain adjustments) to our stockholders. As a REIT, we generally are not subject to U.S. federal income tax on our taxable income that is distributed to our stockholders. To ensure we qualify as a REIT, no person may own more than 9.8%, in value or number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of the outstanding shares of any class or series of our capital stock, which includes our common stock and preferred stock, unless our Board of Directors waives this limitation. We have granted waivers to two mutual funds to own certain classes of our preferred stock above the 9.8% limitation. Also, we have elected to treat certain of our subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (“TRS”). In general, a TRS may hold assets and engage in activities that a REIT or qualified REIT subsidiary (“QRS”) cannot hold or engage in directly and generally may engage in any real estate or non-real estate related business. A TRS is subject to U.S. federal income tax.

1940 Act Exclusion

We continue to conduct our operations so that neither we nor any of our subsidiaries are required to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act. Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the 1940 Act defines an investment company as any issuer that is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities. Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the 1940 Act defines an investment company as any issuer that is engaged or proposes to engage in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of the issuer’s total assets (exclusive of U.S. Government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis (the “40% test”). Excluded from the term “investment securities,” among other things, are U.S.

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Government securities and securities issued by majority owned subsidiaries that are not themselves investment companies and are not relying on the exclusion from the definition of investment company for private funds set forth in Section 3(c)(1) or Section 3(c)(7) of the 1940 Act.

If the value of securities issued by our subsidiaries that are excluded from the definition of “investment company” by Section 3(c)(1) or 3(c)(7) of the 1940 Act, together with any other investment securities we own, exceeds the 40% test under Section 3(a)(1)(C) of the 1940 Act, or if one or more of such subsidiaries fail to maintain an exclusion or exception from the 1940 Act, we could, among other things, be required either (a) to substantially change the manner in which we conduct our operations to avoid being required to register as an investment company or (b) to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act, either of which could have an adverse effect on us and the market price of our securities. If we were required to register as an investment company under the 1940 Act, we could, among other things, be required either to (a) change the manner in which we conduct our operations to avoid being required to register as an investment company, (b) effect sales of our assets in a manner that, or at a time when, we would not otherwise choose to do so, or (c) register as an investment company, any of which could negatively affect the value of our common stock, the sustainability of our business model, and our ability to make distributions. See “Risk Factors - Risks Related to Regulatory, Accounting and Our 1940 Exemption - Loss of our 1940 Act exemption would adversely affect us and negatively affect the market price of shares of our capital stock and our ability to distribute dividends.”

Investment Advisers Act of 1940

The Palisades Group, LLC (“TPG”) is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser under the Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”), and PAS is a relying adviser with respect to TPG’s investment adviser registration. The Advisers Act imposes numerous obligations on registered investment advisers, including fiduciary duties, disclosure obligations, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, marketing restrictions and general anti-fraud prohibitions. The failure to comply with the Advisers Act and other securities laws and regulations could cause the SEC to institute proceedings and impose sanctions for violations, including censure or terminating our registered investment adviser’s SEC registration, and could also result in litigation or reputational harm. See “Risk Factors – Risks Related to Our Investment Management and Advisory Services – Two of our subsidiaries are currently required to be registered as an investment adviser or a relying adviser, subjecting us to extensive regulation and examination by the SEC that could adversely affect our ability to manage our business.”

Licenses to Purchase and Sell Residential Mortgage Loans

While we are not required to obtain licenses to purchase MBS, the purchase and sale of residential mortgage loans in the secondary market may, in some circumstances, require us, or the entities, including securitization trusts, we use to conduct our business, to maintain various state licenses. Acquiring the right to service residential mortgage loans may also, in some circumstances, require us to maintain various state licenses even though we currently do not directly engage in loan servicing ourselves and do not expect to do so. Our failure to obtain or maintain required licenses or exemption statuses or our failure to comply with regulatory requirements that are applicable to our business of acquiring residential mortgage loans may restrict our business and investment options and could harm our business and expose us to penalties or other claims. In one or more states, in lieu of relying on such licenses, we may contribute our acquired residential mortgage loans to one or more trusts in which we or our subsidiaries hold beneficial interests; title to these residential mortgage loans may be held by one or more federally-charted banks as trustee, which may be exempt from state licensing requirements. There can be no assurance that the use of the trusts will satisfy an exemption from licensing requirements because regulatory agencies may adopt different interpretations of applicable laws.

Licenses to Originate and Acquire Mortgage Loans

Because we, through HomeXpress, originate and acquire mortgage loans in 46 states and the District of Columbia, HomeXpress must be licensed in all relevant jurisdictions that require licensure, and HomeXpress is required to comply with each such jurisdiction’s respective laws and regulations, as well as with judicial and administrative decisions applicable to it. Our failure to obtain or maintain required licenses or our failure to comply with regulatory requirements that are applicable to our business of originating and acquiring residential mortgage loans may restrict our business and investment options and could harm our business and expose us to penalties or other claims.

Mortgage Loan Origination Regulations

HomeXpress’ business is subject to extensive oversight and regulation by federal, state and local government authorities. HomeXpress’ loan origination channel is primarily regulated at the state level by state financial services authorities and

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administrative agencies, and at the federal level by the CFPB. The CFPB has federal regulatory, supervisory and enforcement authority over the consumer residential mortgage loan origination industry that includes residential mortgage lenders such as HomeXpress. Specifically, the CFPB has rulemaking authority with respect to the federal consumer financial services laws applicable to mortgage lenders. These laws include (i) the Truth-In-Lending Act (“TILA”), (ii) the Homeowners Protection Act (“HPA”), (iii) the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, (iv) the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”) and its implementing regulation, Regulation C. The CFPB’s enforcement jurisdiction is broad, and it can initiate or refer investigations and enforcement actions against mortgage lenders and servicers for violations of applicable consumer financial services laws, including, but not limited to, the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibitions on unfair, deceptive or abusive acts and practices. As part of its enforcement authority, the CFPB can order, among other things, rescission or reformation of contracts, monetary refunds or the return of real property, restitution, disgorgement or compensation for unjust enrichment, the payment of damages or other monetary relief, public notifications regarding violations, remediation of practices, external compliance monitoring and civil money penalties. Since its inception in 2011, the CFPB has exercised its enforcement jurisdiction aggressively with respect to mortgage industry participants, initiating investigations, entering consent orders with significant monetary and injunctive relief, and initiating litigation. Often these matters have involved differing theories and interpretations of long-existing laws without first issuing industry guidance or rules. In addition, the CFPB shares jurisdiction with the FTC with respect to (i) the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and its implementing regulation, Regulation B, promulgated by the CFPB pursuant to ECOA, (ii) the Fair Housing Act and (iii) the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). In addition to the CFPB, we are subject to a variety of regulatory and contractual obligations imposed by credit owners, insurers and guarantors of the mortgages we originate including, but not limited to, Freddie Mac, FHA and Veterans Affairs. Although we have compliance management systems and procedures to comply with these legal and regulatory requirements, we cannot be assured that more restrictive laws and regulations will not be adopted in the future, or that governmental bodies or courts will not interpret existing laws or regulations in a more restrictive manner, which could render our current business practices non-compliant or which could make compliance more difficult or expensive. If we are deemed to have violated applicable statutes or regulations, it could result in regulatory investigations, state or federal governmental actions or private civil claims, including class actions, being brought against us. Such litigation would cause us to incur costs, fines and legal expenses in connection with these matters, regardless of any eventual ruling in our favor, and could also harm the reputation of our brand, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. See “Risk Factors - Risks Related to Our Recent Acquisition and Loan Origination and Acquisition Business - We operate in a heavily regulated industry, and our mortgage loan origination activities as a result of our acquisition of HomeXpress expose us to risks of noncompliance with an increasing and inconsistent body of complex laws and regulations, including federal and state consumer lending regulations.”

Human Capital

At December 31, 2025, we had 423 full-time employees, including 332 employees of our consolidated subsidiary, HomeXpress. Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain talent in a diverse workplace. We focus on building an inclusive workplace that fosters varied perspectives to drive innovation. We believe that exceptional people working together is the foundation of our success and enables us to live our mission every day. We also believe that our relationship with our employees is good and none of our employees are unionized or represented under a collective bargaining agreement.

Our human capital objectives include attracting, developing, and retaining key personnel. Our employees are critical to the success of our organization, and we are committed to supporting our employees’ professional development. We believe our management team has the experience necessary to effectively implement our growth strategy and continue to drive shareholder value. We provide competitive compensation and benefits to attract and retain key personnel, while also providing a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace. We offer internal training programs on financial markets, business ethics, government regulatory rules and other topics. We encourage personnel to attend industry sponsored or other conferences and have a tuition reimbursement program to help personnel to further develop their skills and to stay current on evolving trends impacting our industry.

We focus on attracting and retaining employees by providing compensation and benefits packages that are competitive within the applicable market, taking into account the job position’s location and responsibilities. We provide competitive financial benefits such as a 401(k) retirement plan with a company match and offer a comprehensive healthcare benefit plan and other tools to support our employees’ health and well-being. Our employees are also eligible for grant awards of restricted stock units. We have a matching gift program to encourage personnel to be charitable and to support 501(c)(3) organizations.

Competition

Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to acquire and originate target assets on terms consistent with our business model. In acquiring these assets, we expect to compete with other mortgage REITs, investment management firms, specialty finance companies, savings and loan associations, banks, mortgage bankers, institutions offering to make residential mortgage

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loans, insurance companies, exchange traded funds, mutual funds, institutional investors, investment banking firms, financial institutions, private equity funds, hedge funds, governmental bodies (including the Federal Reserve) and other entities. Many of our competitors are significantly larger than we are, have access to greater capital and other resources, and may have other advantages over us. In addition, some of our competitors may have higher risk tolerances, different risk assessments, or fewer regulatory burdens and restrictions, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments and establish more favorable relationships than we can.

The asset management industry is extremely competitive. We compete with other alternative asset and investment management firms, including hedge funds, public and private investment firms, distressed debt funds, business development companies, and other financial institution. We compete for both investors/clients and attractive investment opportunities based on a number of factors, including investment performance, brand recognition, business reputation, pricing, innovation, the quality of services we provide to the investors and clients, the range of products we offer and our ability to attract and retain qualified professionals in all aspects of our business while managing our operating costs. Many of our competitors are significantly larger than we are, have access to greater capital and other resources, and may have other advantages over us. The existence of these entities, as well as the possibility of additional entities forming in the future, may limit our ability to grow fees from our non-discretionary investment management and advisory services or our ability to obtain new third-party non-discretionary accounts.

Through our subsidiary, HomeXpress, we originate consumer Non-QM, investor business purpose, and other mortgage loan products. Competition in the residential mortgage loan origination market is intense. Institutions offering to make residential mortgage loans, regardless of the channel, include regional banks, specialty finance companies, credit unions, mortgage brokers and bankers, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and other financial institutions. Some of our competitors may have more market presence and greater financial and other resources than we have. Other competitors, such as lenders who originate mortgage loans using their own funds, or retail mortgage lenders, may have more operational flexibility in approving and pricing loans, may have advantages in soliciting home loans from their clients or have access to capital through deposits at lower costs than our warehouse facilities. Additionally, we are generally subject to all state and local laws applicable to lenders in each jurisdiction in which we originate loans unlike our federal chartered competitors, such as U.S. federal banks and thrifts and their subsidiaries, who conduct their business under relatively uniform U.S. federal rules and standards due to federal preemption and are generally not subject to the laws of the states in which they do business.

Available Information

Our investor relations website is www.chimerareit.com. We make available on the website under “Filings & Reports,” free of charge, our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports and investor presentations on Form 8-K and any other reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) (including any amendments to such reports) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such materials to the SEC. Information on our website, however, is not part of or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, all our filed reports can be obtained at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.