United Guaranty Corp. earned $43 million in the second quarter, compared to a profit of $12 million in the same period a year ago as its risk-based pricing strategy bolstered its bottom line.
A subsidiary of American International Group, UGC wrote $8.5 billion of new insurance during the quarter, making it one of the most active writers of new policies in the industry. (At deadline National Mortgage News was waiting for clarification on some of its numbers.)
As for its competitors, Radian wrote $8.3 billion of NIW for 2Q12, MGIC $5.9 billion and Genworth $3.6 billion. Some of these firms do not include HARP loans, which are considered modifications, as NIW.
The newest MI, privately-held Essent Guaranty, did $2.2 billion in NIW for the quarter.
In the year-ago quarter UGC wrote $3.1 billion of new MI policies.
Besides its pricing strategy, UGC said it benefited from a higher sales focus on certain channels and that two of its competitors stopped writing business last year.
Its average FICO score for the second quarter book of business was 759. The average loan-to-value was 91%.
AIG president and CEO Robert Benmosche said UGC “is progressively becoming a choice mortgage insurer for lenders to [use for] highly qualified borrowers because of our risk-based pricing strategy.”
