Mr. Zimmerman: Our company was founded in 1957 by Max Karl here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are the oldest and largest domestic mortgage insurer in the country. We have 170 billion of insurance in force or high loan to value mortgages that we insure, and these are typically first-time homebuyers with average loan amounts of about 130,000 ' the average LTV is around 93% or 95%. We are the market share leader relative to new insurance writings, as well as insurance in force. There are seven competitors in our industry. That's down from 14 competitors in the mid-1980s. We are a highly regulated industry, as we are regulated by all 50 state insurance commissioners and are a capital intensive business as well.
TWST: What have been the principal drivers of your success? What are
your competitive advantages?
Mr. Zimmerman: We've been competing for a long time on a value-added
approach. We are the most efficient company in the industry as measured
from an expense ratio perspective. Our statutory expense ratio at the
end of last year was 14.7% versus our public competitors of 31.8%. We're
a very efficient provider of value-added services to our lender
customers. As an example, prior to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the
existence of the mortgage-backed securities market, we helped begin and
start the secondary mortgage market of putting together buyers and
sellers of mortgage loans, when mortgage lending was much more of a
regional business than today, where more national players are involved
in the process.
Tickers included in this excerpt: MTG
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