Arlington Asset Investment

The company was founded as Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. in 1989 by Emmanuel Friedman, Eric Billings, and Russ Ramsey. In 1997, it became a public company via an initial public offering, raising $206 million. Ramsey left the company in 2001.

Following the early 2000s recession, FBR Group invested heavily in subprime mortgages. During the subprime mortgage crisis, the company incurred severe losses related to its underperforming mortgage origination platform and widespread problems in subprime mortgage lending, which led to a sale of ownership in FBR's subprime subsidiary, First NLC Financial Services, in the summer of 2007.

Friedman left FBR Group in 2005. In June 2007, FBR Capital Markets was formed through a corporate spin-off from FBR Group.

From its founding through 2008, FBR Group was taxed as a real estate investment trust. Starting in 2009, the company converted to a C corporation to use its net operating loss carry-forwards and net capital loss carry-forwards to shield substantially all of its income from income taxes.

In May 2009, a month before changing its name to Arlington Asset Investment Corp., it sold a portion of its investment in FBR Capital Markets for $72.5 million. In October 2009, the remaining investment in FBR Capital Markets was sold for $84.1 million.

When he stepped down as CEO in June 2014, Eric Billings became its Executive Chairman. Appointed CEO, J. Rock Tonkel Jr. served as the company's president and Chief Operating Officer.

In 2019, the year Billing retired, the firm converted back to a real estate investment trust after it had used its net operating loss carry-forwards. From the following year onwards, it began to transition the company from primarily a levered agency MBS strategy to one focused on multiple investment channels in mortgage servicing rights, single-family residential rental properties, credit investments and agency MBS.