Another strong quarter
MGIC Investment Corporation reported second-quarter 2026 net income of $182.1 million, or $0.86 per diluted share, down from $192.5 million a year earlier but up from $165.3 million in the first quarter, for a 14.5 percent annualized return on equity. New insurance written rose to $17.8 billion from $14.4 billion in the first quarter and $16.4 billion a year earlier, and insurance in force reached a record $304.8 billion. MGIC's primary delinquency inventory was 26,152 loans, a 2.37 percent delinquency rate by count, up from 2.21 percent a year earlier though down from 2.44 percent in the first quarter.
Data compiled by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and cited by National Mortgage News showed private mortgage insurers as a group wrote 21 percent more new business in the second quarter than in the first and 17 percent more than a year earlier. After the reporting season, KBW analyst Bose George raised earnings targets for four of the five insurers he covers, Radian being the exception.
Radian Group reported second-quarter net income from continuing operations of $118 million, or $0.87 per diluted share, down from $154 million, or $1.11 per share, a year earlier, according to its August 5 earnings release; adjusted pretax operating income rose to $196 million from $191 million. Radian said primary mortgage insurance in force reached a record $284 billion and that its default rate declined from the prior quarter, with continued favorable credit trends — even as reported net income fell, reflecting purchase-accounting charges tied to its acquisition of the insurer Inigo rather than deterioration in the core mortgage-insurance book.
A capital-grid change, not a new product
On July 29, the same day the GSEs' insurer clients were reporting earnings, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced changes to the Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements, the capital test mortgage insurers must satisfy to do business with the two companies. Under the revision, effective September 30, 2026, an insurer that receives both a VantageScore 4.0 and a Classic FICO score on an application may choose which one to use in calculating the risk-based required asset amount under PMIERs.
George noted that for most credit-score buckets, the VantageScore grid requires more capital than the equivalent FICO score roughly 20 points lower, and that adoption of VantageScore so far has been meaningful only among the two largest originators, Rocket and United Wholesale Mortgage, with limited uptake elsewhere. "We think this transition to VantageScore 4.0 remains a work in progress," George wrote in an August 10 note, adding that even broader adoption is unlikely to have a meaningful effect on mortgage activity or credit availability. The change is a capital-allocation mechanic for insurers, not a shift in underwriting standards borrowers would notice directly, and it should not be read as evidence that credit access is loosening.
The first-time buyer context
A separate industry report from U.S. Mortgage Insurers, released August 13, found that 64 percent of 2025 borrowers who used private mortgage insurance were first-time homebuyers, with an average loan amount of $376,317 and more than $311 billion in total insured volume for the year — underscoring how central low-down-payment PMI-backed lending has become to first-time purchases as home prices have stayed elevated relative to incomes.
Taken together, the quarter shows an industry earning steadily on rising volume while regulators and the GSEs experiment at the margins with how credit risk is scored, without yet resolving the bigger question of whether alternative credit-scoring models will materially widen the pool of borrowers who qualify.