New Mortgage Insurer Gets $500 Million

A new mortgage insurance company in the process of formation has secured $500 million in equity funding. Among those investing in Essent Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based holding company, are: Pine Brook Road Partners, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, PartnerRe and Renaissance Re. Essent Group and its subsidiary Essent US Holdings Inc., Radnor, Pa., are forming Essent Guaranty Inc., a monoline mortgage insurer that will be domiciled in Pennsylvania. Mark A. Casale, who was president of Radian Guaranty Inc., Philadelphia, between May 2006 and October 2007, is the president and chief executive of Essent. If successful, Essent would be the first new mortgage insurer to start to underwrite business since Triad Guaranty Insurance Co. started operations in 1987. Ironically, Triad is the first and so far only casualty of the downturn in the mortgage business, as the company is currently in run-off and no longer underwriting new policies.