Genworth LMI claims still "elevated"

Claim levels on the mortgage insurer Genworth Financial remain “elevated”, the company said yesterday.

Claims by insured home-loan funders were A$71 million in the December 2012 quarter, down from $81 million in the September quarter.

Claim hot-spots remain loans advanced to borrowers in Queensland and also to small business owners and the self-employed.

Genworth also said new business climbed 20% in the quarter, rather at odds with the collapse in first home buyers but there you go.

Meanwhile, the recent Moody’s downgrade to the LMI sector is flowing through to RMBS. Also from Banking Day:

Moody’s Investors Service’s downgrade of the financial strength ratings of lenders’ mortgage insurance companies will percolate through to reduced credit ratings on some senior mortgage-backed bonds issued by Bendigo Bank, Heritage Bank, ING Direct, Interstar, National Australia Bank and Westpac.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.

Genworth LMI claims still “elevated”