 View printer-friendly version | | Radian CFO Cites Positive Market Trends | PHILADELPHIA, Jun 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --During a presentation at the Macquarie Small- and Mid-Cap Conference
today, Radian Chief Financial Officer Bob Quint cited positive market
trends for the company's mortgage insurance and financial guaranty
businesses.
"We are seeing some improvement in the macroeconomic environment and
housing market, which in turn has begun to stabilize the performance of
our mortgage insurance legacy book," stated Quint. "While we believe the
recovery to a more normal economic environment will be slow, there are
many signs that the worst is behind us."
The presentation provided a strategic overview of the company and its
financial position. Highlights included:
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Continued signs of market stabilization as delinquencies for April
declined by approximately 1 percent, and for May by approximately 1.6
percent. The company emphasized that while the delinquency trends were
clearly positive, there are many other factors affecting Radian's loss
reserve estimate, including default composition, severity and
rescission and denial assumptions
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The gradual shift of market share to the private mortgage insurance
industry from FHA mortgage insurance that began in February, and has
slowly increased each month through April
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Radian Guaranty Inc., the company's mortgage insurance subsidiary, had
a risk-to-capital ratio of 16.9:1 at March 31, 2010, among the lowest
in the industry at quarter end; the company's recent capital raise
provides additional financial flexibility, including potential capital
support for the company's mortgage insurance business
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Radian Asset Assurance Inc., the company's principal financial
guaranty subsidiary, continues to provide capital support for Radian
Guaranty and expects to pay another ordinary dividend of approximately
$70 million this month
The presentation webcast and accompanying slides may be accessed by
visiting the Investors section of Radian's website at http://www.radian.biz/page?name=Webcasts.
About Radian
Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN), headquartered in Philadelphia, provides
private mortgage insurance and related risk mitigation products and
services to mortgage lenders nationwide through its principal operating
subsidiary, Radian Guaranty Inc. These services help promote and
preserve homeownership opportunities for homebuyers, while protecting
lenders from default-related losses on residential first mortgages and
facilitating the sale of low-downpayment mortgages in the secondary
market. Additional information may be found at www.radian.biz.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this report that address events, developments or
results that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future are
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. In most cases, forward-looking statements may be identified by
words such as "anticipate," "may," "will," "could," "should," "would,"
"expect," "intend," "plan," "goal," "contemplate," "believe,"
"estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," or the
negative or other variations on these words and other similar
expressions. These statements, which include, without limitation,
projections regarding our future performance and financial condition are
made on the basis of management's current views and assumptions with
respect to future events. Any forward-looking statement is not a
guarantee of future performance and actual results could differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking information.
These statements speak only as of the date of this news release, and we
undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise. The forward-looking statements, as well as our prospects as a
whole, are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the following:
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changes in general financial and political conditions, such as the
failure of the U.S. economy to recover from the most recent recession
or the U.S. economy reentering a recessionary period following a brief
period of stabilization or even growth, the lack of meaningful
liquidity in the capital markets or in the credit markets, a prolonged
period of high unemployment rates and limited home price appreciation
or further depreciation (which has resulted in some borrowers
voluntarily defaulting on their mortgages when their mortgage balances
exceed the value of their homes), changes or volatility in interest
rates or consumer confidence, changes in credit spreads, changes in
the way investors perceive the strength of private mortgage insurers
or financial guaranty providers, investor concern over the credit
quality and specific risks faced by the particular businesses,
municipalities or pools of assets covered by our insurance;
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catastrophic events or further economic changes in geographic regions
where our mortgage insurance or financial guaranty insurance is more
concentrated;
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our ability to successfully execute upon our capital plan for our
mortgage insurance business (which depends, in part, on the
performance of our financial guaranty portfolio), and if necessary, to
obtain additional capital to support new business writings in our
mortgage insurance business and the long-term liquidity needs of our
holding company;
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a further decrease in the volume of home mortgage originations due to
reduced liquidity in the lending market, tighter underwriting
standards and the decrease in housing demand throughout the U.S.;
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our ability to maintain adequate risk-to-capital ratios and surplus
requirements in our mortgage insurance business in light of ongoing
losses in this business and continued deterioration in our financial
guaranty portfolio which, in the absence of new capital, may depend on
our ability to execute strategies for which regulatory and other
approvals are required and may not be obtained;
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our ability to continue to effectively mitigate our mortgage insurance
and financial guaranty losses;
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reduced opportunities for loss mitigation in markets where housing
values do not appreciate or continue to decline;
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the negative impact our increased levels of insurance rescissions and
claim denials may have on our relationships with customers, including
the heightened risk of potential disputes and litigation;
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the concentration of our mortgage insurance business among a
relatively small number of large customers;
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disruption in the servicing of mortgages covered by our insurance
policies;
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the aging of our mortgage insurance portfolio and changes in severity
or frequency of losses associated with certain of our products that
are riskier than traditional mortgage insurance or financial guaranty
insurance policies;
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the performance of our insured portfolio of higher risk loans, such as
Alternative-A ("Alt-A") and subprime loans, and of adjustable rate
products, such as adjustable rate mortgages and interest-only
mortgages;
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a decrease in persistency rates of our mortgage insurance policies;
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an increase in the risk profile of our existing mortgage insurance
portfolio due to mortgage refinancing in the current housing market;
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further downgrades or threatened downgrades of, or other ratings
actions with respect to, our credit ratings or the ratings assigned by
the major rating agencies to any of our rated insurance subsidiaries
at any time (in particular, the credit rating of Radian Group Inc. and
the financial strength ratings assigned to Radian Guaranty Inc.);
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heightened competition for our mortgage insurance business from others
such as the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans'
Administration or other private mortgage insurers (in particular those
that have been assigned higher ratings from the major rating agencies)
or new entrants to the industry;
-
changes in the charters or business practices of Federal National
Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and Freddie Mac, the largest
purchasers of mortgage loans that we insure, and our ability to remain
an eligible provider to both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae;
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changes to the current system of housing finance, including the
possibility of a new system in which private mortgage insurers are not
required or their services are significantly limited in scope;
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the application of existing federal or state consumer, lending,
insurance, tax, securities and other applicable laws and regulations,
or changes in these laws and regulations or the way they are
interpreted; including, without limitation: (i) the outcome of
existing, or the possibility of additional, lawsuits or
investigations, and (ii) legislative and regulatory changes (a)
affecting demand for private mortgage insurance, (b) limiting or
restricting our use of (or requirements for) additional capital and
the products we may offer, or (c) affecting the form in which we
execute credit protection or affecting our existing financial guaranty
portfolio;
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the possibility that we may fail to estimate accurately the
likelihood, magnitude and timing of losses in connection with
establishing loss reserves for our mortgage insurance or financial
guaranty businesses or premium deficiencies for our mortgage insurance
business, or to estimate accurately the fair value amounts of
derivative instruments in our mortgage insurance and financial
guaranty businesses in determining gains and losses on these contracts;
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the ability of our primary insurance customers in our financial
guaranty reinsurance business to provide appropriate surveillance and
to mitigate losses adequately with respect to our assumed insurance
portfolio;
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volatility in our earnings caused by changes in the fair value of our
derivative instruments and our need to reevaluate the possibility of a
premium deficiency in our mortgage insurance business on a quarterly
basis;
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changes in accounting guidance from the Securities and Exchange
Commission or the Financial Accounting Standards Board; and
-
legal and other limitations on amounts we may receive from our
subsidiaries as dividends or through our tax- and expense-sharing
arrangements with our subsidiaries.
For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties as well as
certain additional risks that we face, you should review the risks
described under Item 1A, "Risk Factors" detailed in Item 1A of Part II
of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31,
2010, and subsequent reports filed from time to time with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE: Radian Group Inc.
Radian Group Inc. Emily Riley,215-231-1035 emily.riley@radian.biz |
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| "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Radian Group Inc.'s business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year. |
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