Annual business more than doubled at Arch Mortgage Insurance Co. thanks to a huge acquisition. Quarterly business slowed as defaults deteriorated.
In its fourth-quarter 2017 earnings report, its Pembroke, Bermuda-based parent Arch Capital Group LTD revealed income of $259 million before income taxes.
Earnings rose from $83 million in the final-three months of 2016. Arch swung from a loss in the preceding three-month period of $37 million.
Underwriting income from the mortgage segment dropped to $172 million from $186 million but was well ahead of the $46 million as of the same-three months in 2016.
New insurance written came to $14.391 billion in the final three months of last year, slowing from $17.683 billion in the third quarter but much more than the $8.788 billion it wrote during the fourth-quarter 2016 just before its December 2016 acquisition of United Guaranty Corp. from AIG.
Refinance share widened to 9.6 percent in the latest quarter from 6.9 percent in the third quarter.
For all of last year, $62.037 billion in new insurance was written, more than doubling the $26.867 billion written during 2016.
Total insurance in force grew to $351.836 billion as of year-end 2017 from $346.169 billion three months earlier and $315.609 billion one year earlier.
The number of policies in force expanded to 1,213,382 from 1,202,619 at the end of September and 1,153,630 at the end of 2016.
The rate of defaults climbed to 2.23 percent from 1.98 percent
but was down from 2.6 percent as of Dec. 31, 2016.
