Last year, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp. increased new business by more than a third and cut its delinquency rate by 230 basis points. Quarterly business, however, suffered.
New insurance written at the Raleigh, N.C.-based company totaled $4.900 billion in the final three months of last year. The total reflects only U.S. business.
The results were disclosed in fourth-quarter earnings data released earlier this month by the mortgage insurer’s parent, Genworth Financial Inc.
Business dropped from the prior period, when $6.400 billion in mortgages were insured..
During the fourth-quarter 2012, Genworth wrote $5.100 billion in new insurance.
Full-year 2013 volume was $22.300 billion, improving on $16.400 billion the previous year.
Genworth ended December with $109.300 billion primary insurance in force. The total inched up from $109.000 billion as of Sept. 30 but slipped from $110.000 billion as of Dec. 31, 2012.
The number of insurance policies in force — including primary, flow, bulk, nonprime and pool policies — was 1,299,133 as of the end of last year.
Policies outstanding declined from 1,307,810 at the end of the third quarter and 1,376,634 at the end of 2012.
The delinquency rate fell to 8.74 percent from 9.23 percent as of Sept. 30.
Performance has also improved from the end of the previous year, when the rate was 11.04 percent.
Prior to income taxes, the M.I. unit earned $11 million, swinging from a $4 million third-quarter loss and a $55 million fourth-quarter 2012 loss.
