The mortgage lender highlighted the launch of Project North Star, a new three-year initiative, and the return of LoanDepot founder Anthony Hsieh to lead the company as two bright spots heading into 2025. It also hinted that it is on the look out for more joint venture opportunities.

The Irvine, California-based firm had a net loss of $67.5 million in the fourth quarter, after a net income of $2.7 million the prior quarter. This can be partially attributed to a decline in its margins, which slid to 209 basis points from 333 basis points three months prior.

For all of 2024, Loandepot posted a net loss of $202 million, which includes $25 million of cybersecurity related costs. That was an improvement from a net loss of $236 million in 2023.

Frank Martell, who is stepping down as CEO, applauded the significant progress the company has made in completing Vision 2025, which has shaved operational costs at the organization.

"The strategic imperatives of Vision 2025 served as our roadmap for successfully navigating the historical downturn in the housing and mortgage markets over the past three years," Martell said in a written statement.

"As the Company enters 2025, I believe team loanDepot is positioned to accelerate revenue growth and continue our progress towards sustainable profitability under the auspices of Project North Star that we announced in November 2024, and under Anthony Hsieh's new leadership that was announced last week."

The top-20 ranked residential lender and servicer reported origination volume of $7.2 billion for the October-December period, up from $6.7 billion in the previous quarter.

Purchase volume totaled 58% of total loans originated in the fourth quarter, down from 66% in the third quarter, a reflection of an increase in refinance transactions, the company said.

Expenses rose by $39 million, or 13%, from the previous year to $342 million at the mortgage lender. The increase was driven primarily by higher volume-related commissions and marketing expenses.

"Last quarter we had a big insurance recovery in the third quarter related to the cyber event," said David Hayes, chief financial officer, during the company's earnings call. "There's a kind of a return to normalization in the fourth quarter, and then generally in the expense profile we talked about investing in loan originators and operations and carrying excess capacity, so that impacted a little bit of the fourth quarter."

Meanwhile, its servicing fee income dipped to $108 million in the fourth quarter, from $124 million the prior quarter. That marks a 18% decrease from an income of $132 million in 2023. "This is in line with a decrease in the size of the portfolio resulting from second quarter bulk sales," said Hayes.

Regarding the North Star Project, Martell said it is in "its formative stages," but that the company is "already investing in the technology platforms that will enable a lot of our operating efficiency and reduced cycle time and improved customer experience."

"We expect this to be progressively more impactful as we get into this year and certainly next year," Martell added during the company's earnings call.

Looking ahead, Loandepot predicts origination volume between $4.5 billion and $5.5 billion in the first quarter, and GOS between 320 basis points and 340 basis points.