Radian buys risk management analytics provider Five Bridges

Radian Group has acquired Five Bridges Advisors, further cementing the new focus of its mortgage and title services business.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Five Bridges will continue to operate under its current name for the time being, although it will eventually transition to the new One Radian brand during 2019. Co-founders Steve Gaenzier and Michael Youngblood will continue with Five Bridges. Gaenzier will run the day-to-day operations, reporting to Eric Ray, senior executive vice president, technology and transaction services.

Five Bridges offers a cloud-based portal that utilizes deep analytics to provide customers with valuation and risk management tools that span the entire loan lifecycle.

"This acquisition is another example of how Radian is reengineering and revolutionizing existing industry business models to enhance the overall value proposition for our customers," Radian CEO Rick Thornberry said in a press release.

In the third quarter of 2018, Radian's title, mortgage and valuation services segment lost $7.9 million. Back in August 2017, Radian announced a restructuring plan for the business that would focus on areas that had higher growth potential, such as property valuation and title, rather than private-label mortgage-backed securities advisory.

Radian acquired title insurer and settlement services provider Entitle Direct in March 2018, to compliment ValuAmerica, which it purchased in October 2015. Prior to ValuAmerica, Radian purchased Red Bell Real Estate, which offers valuation products, in March 2015.

More recently, it bought Independent Settlement Services, a national appraisal and title management services company in November 2018.

The Five Bridges deal was independent of Radian's recent roll out of Radar Rates, its new mortgage insurance pricing engine, which uses analytics to determine policy premiums, a spokeswoman added.