PMI

The Federal Housing Administration is cutting its annual mortgage insurance premium by 25 basis points, lowering it to 60 basis points starting Jan. 27, the agency said Monday.

Now that it has completed the purchase of its rival private mortgage insurer United Guaranty from AIG, Arch Capital Group plans to trim the sales force while avoiding service disruptions.

Freddie Mac obtained one final new insurance policy under its Agency Credit Insurance Structure program in 2016.

Arch Capital Group plans to offer $950 million of senior notes, using the proceeds to fund a portion of its acquisition of United Guaranty Corp. and AIG United Guaranty Insurance (Asia) Ltd. from AIG.

Industry forecasts for 2017 mortgage volume assumed a continuation of current housing and economic policies under a Hillary Clinton administration. But with Donald Trump's win, analysts are sorting out what, if any, adjustments are needed to those projections.

Housing was the talk of the campaign two presidential elections ago, but it stayed under the radar in the 2016 race, leaving plenty of room to speculate about President-elect Donald Trump's likely mortgage policy for the next four years.

Since the government-sponsored enterprises began experimenting with both frontend and backend deals in which part of the credit risk is shared with third parties, investors have been watching carefully.

Essent Group reported higher net income on a 25% year-over-year increase in insurance-in-force, while Genworth Financial posted a larger net loss from a year ago as its life insurance division took a hit.

The agency released a plan last week that would stipulate that newly constructed homes financed by the Federal Housing Administration would have to be elevated two feet above the 100-year-based flood level.

NMI Holdings reported record net income of $6.2 million for the third quarter, as its insurance-in-force grew 19% during the period.