Even though new business fell from the previous quarter at Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., its book of business and profitability both improved.
Income from continuing operations before income taxes worked out to $228 million, parent Genworth Financial Inc. revealed in its first-quarter earnings report.
Income at
the Richmond, Virginia-based firm declined from $332 million earned in the first-three months of last year. But earnings swung from a $290 million loss in the final-three months of 2017.
Within just the U.S. mortgage insurance business, income climbed to $141 million from $114 million in the first-quarter 2017 and $117 million in the fourth-quarter 2017.
New insurance written declined to $9.0 billion in the first-quarter 2018 from $10.2 billion three months earlier. But business accelerated from $7.6 billion one year earlier.
Refinance share during the latest three-month period was 11 percent, the same as in the preceding quarter.
March of this year finished with insurance in force on $154.9 billion. The book of business increased from $151.8 billion at the end of last year and $139.3 billion at the same point last year.
With insurance in force on 749,145 loans,
the book of business expanded from 742,094 the prior quarter and 703,214 a year prior.
Genworth reported
that its primary delinquency rate tumbled to 2.75 percent from 3.12 percent as of Dec. 31, 2017. The rate was also down from 3.27 percent as of March 31, 2017.
