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Old Republic International Corporation  (ORI)
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What are Old Republic International's Business Segments?



General Insurance Group
Old Republic's General Insurance segment is best characterized as a commercial lines insurance business with a strong focus on liability insurance coverages. Most of these coverages are provided to businesses, government, and other institutions. The Company does not have a meaningful exposure to personal lines insurance such as homeowners and private automobile coverages, nor does it insure significant amounts of commercial or other real property. In continuance of its commercial lines orientation, Old Republic also focuses on specific sectors of the North American economy, most prominently the transportation (trucking and general aviation), commercial construction, healthcare, education, retail and wholesale trade, forest products, energy, general manufacturing, and financial services industries. In managing the insurance risks it undertakes, the Company employs various underwriting and loss mitigation techniques such as utilization of policy deductibles, captive insurance risk-sharing arrangements, and retrospective rating and policyholder dividend plans. These underwriting techniques are intended to better correlate premium charges with the ultimate claims experience of individual or groups of assureds.


Over the years, the General Insurance Group's operations have been developed steadily through a combination of internal growth, the establishment of additional subsidiaries focused on new types of coverages and/or industry sectors, and through several mergers of smaller companies. As a result, this segment has become widely diversified with a business base encompassing the following major coverages:
Automobile Extended Warranty Insurance (1992): Coverage is provided to the vehicle owner for certain mechanical or electrical repair or replacement costs after the manufacturer's warranty has expired.


Aviation (1983): Insurance policies protect the value of aircraft hulls and afford liability coverage for acts that result in injury, loss of life, and property damage to passengers and others on the ground or in the air.


Commercial Automobile Insurance (1930's): Covers vehicles (mostly trucks) used principally in commercial pursuits. Policies cover damage to insured vehicles and liabilities incurred by an assured for bodily injury and property damage sustained by third parties.
Commercial Multi-Peril ("CMP")(1920's): Policies afford liability coverage for claims arising from the acts of owners or employees, and protection for the physical assets of businesses.


Financial Indemnity: Multiple types of specialty coverages, including most prominently the following four, are underwritten by Old Republic within this financial indemnity products classification.


Errors & Omissions("E&O")/Directors & Officers ("D&O")(1983): E&O liability policies are written for non-medical professional service providers such as lawyers, architects, and consultants, and provide coverage for legal expenses, and indemnity settlements for claims alleging breaches of professional standards. D&O coverage provides for the payment of legal expenses, and indemnity settlements for claims made against the directors and officers of corporations from a variety of sources, most typically shareholders.


Fidelity (1981): Bonds cover the exposures of financial institutions and commercial and other enterprises for losses of monies or debt and equity securities due to acts of employee dishonesty.


Guaranteed Asset Protection ("GAP")(2003): This insurance indemnifies an automobile loan borrower for the dollar value difference between an insurance company's liability for the total loss (remaining cash value) of an insured vehicle and the amount still owed on an automobile loan.
Surety (1981): Bonds are insurance company guarantees of performance by a corporate principal or individual such as for the completion of a building or road project, or payment on various types of contracts.
General Liability (1920's): Protects against liability of an assured which stems from carelessness, negligence, or failure to act, and results in property damage or personal injury to others.


Home Warranty Insurance (1981): This product provides repair and/or replacement coverage for home systems (e.g. plumbing, heating, and electrical) and designated appliances.


Inland Marine (1920's): Coverage pertains to the insurance of property in transit over land and of property which is mobile by nature.
Travel Accident (1970): Coverages provided under these policies, some of which are also underwritten by the Company's Canadian life insurance affiliate, cover monetary losses arising from trip delay and cancellation for individual insureds.
Workers' Compensation (1910's): This coverage is purchased by employers to provide insurance for employees' lost wages and medical benefits in the event of work-related injury, disability, or death.

Commercial automobile, general liability and workers' compensation insurance policy coverages are typically produced in tandem for many assureds. For 2015, production of workers' compensation direct insurance premiums accounted for approximately 36.4% of consolidated General Insurance Group direct premiums written, while commercial automobile and general liability direct premium production amounted to approximately 28.3% and 11.3%, respectively, of such consolidated totals.

Approximately 91% of general insurance premiums are produced through independent agency or brokerage channels, while the remaining 9% is obtained through direct production facilities.

Title Insurance Group

Old Republic's flagship title insurance company was founded in 1907. The Title Insurance Group's business consists primarily of the issuance of policies to real estate purchasers and investors based upon searches of the public records which contain information concerning interests in real property. The policies insure against losses arising out of defects, liens and encumbrances affecting the insured title and not excluded or excepted from the coverage of the policy. For the year ended December 31, 2015, approximately 27% of the Company's consolidated title premium and related fee income stemmed from direct operations (which include branch offices of its title insurers and wholly owned agency and service subsidiaries of the Company), while the remaining 73% emanated from independent title agents and underwritten title companies.

There are two basic types of title insurance policies: lenders' policies and owners' policies. Both are issued for a one-time premium. Most mortgages made in the United States are extended by mortgage bankers, savings and commercial banks, state and federal agencies, and life insurance companies. These financial institutions secure title insurance policies to protect their mortgagees' interest in the real property. This protection remains in effect for as long as the mortgagee has an interest in the property. A separate title insurance policy may be issued to the owner of the real estate. An owner's policy of title insurance protects an owner's interest in the title to the property.

The premiums charged for the issuance of title insurance policies vary with the policy amount and the type of policy issued. The premium is collected in full when the real estate transaction is closed, there being no recurring fee thereafter. In many areas, premiums charged on subsequent policies on the same property may be reduced depending generally upon the time elapsed between issuance of the previous policies and the nature of the transactions for which the policies are issued. Most of the charge to the customer relates to title services rendered in conjunction with the issuance of a policy rather than to the possibility of loss due to risks insured against. Accordingly, the cost of services performed by a title insurer relates for the most part to the prevention of loss rather than to the assumption of the risk of loss. Claim losses that do occur result primarily from title search and examination mistakes, fraud, forgery, incapacity, missing heirs and escrow processing errors.

In connection with its title insurance operations, Old Republic also provides escrow closing and construction disbursement services, as well as real estate information products, national default management services, and a variety of other services pertaining to real estate transfers and loan transactions.

Republic Financial Indemnity Group (RFIG) Run-off Business
Old Republic's RFIG run-off business consists of its mortgage guaranty and CCI operations.
Private mortgage insurance protects mortgage lenders and investors from default related losses on residential mortgage loans made primarily to homebuyers who make down payments of less than 20% of the home's purchase price. The mortgage guaranty operation insures only first mortgage loans, primarily on residential properties incorporating one-to-four family dwelling units. Old Republic's mortgage guaranty business was started in 1973.

There are two principal types of private mortgage insurance coverage: "primary" and "pool". Primary mortgage insurance provides mortgage default protection on individual loans and covers a stated percentage of the unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest, and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure. In lieu of paying the stated coverage percentage, the Company may pay the entire claim amount, take title to the mortgaged property, and subsequently sell the property to mitigate its loss. Pool insurance, which is written on a group of loans in negotiated transactions, provides coverage that ranges up to 100% of the net loss on each individual loan included in the pool, subject to provisions regarding deductibles, caps on individual exposures, and aggregate stop loss provisions which limit aggregate losses to a specified percentage of the total original balances of all loans in the pool.

Traditional primary insurance was issued on an individual loan basis to mortgage bankers, brokers, commercial banks and savings institutions through a network of Company-managed underwriting sites located throughout the country. Traditional primary loans were individually reviewed (except for loans insured under delegated underwriting programs) and priced according to filed premium rates. In underwriting traditional primary business, the Company generally adhered to the underwriting guidelines published by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac both of which were purchasers of many of the loans the Company insured. Delegated underwriting programs allowed approved lenders to commit the Company to insure loans provided they adhered to predetermined underwriting guidelines.

Bulk and other insurance was issued on groups of loans to mortgage banking customers through a centralized risk assessment and underwriting department. These groups of loans were priced in the aggregate on a bid or negotiated basis. Coverage for insurance issued in this manner was provided through primary insurance policies (loan level coverage) or pool insurance policies (aggregate coverage). The Company considers transactions designated as bulk insurance to be exposed to higher risk (as determined by such characteristics as origination channel, loan amount, credit quality, and extent of loan documentation) than those designated as other insurance.

Before insuring any loans, the Company issued to each approved customer a master policy outlining the terms and conditions under which coverage would be provided. Primary business was then produced via the issuance of a commitment/certificate for each loan submitted and approved for insurance. In the case of business providing pool coverage, a separate pool insurance policy was issued covering the particular loans applicable to each transaction.

As to all types of mortgage insurance products, the amount of premium charge depended on various underwriting criteria such as loan-to-value ratios, the level of coverage being provided, the borrower's credit history, the type of loan instrument (whether fixed rate/fixed payment or an adjustable rate/adjustable payment), documentation type, and whether or not the insured property is categorized as an investment or owner occupied property. Coverage is non-cancelable by the Company (except in the case of non-payment of premium or certain master policy violations) and premiums are paid under single, annual, or monthly payment plans. Single premiums are paid at the inception of coverage and provide coverage for the entire policy term. Annual and monthly premiums are renewable on their anniversary dates with the premium charge determined on the basis of the original or outstanding loan amount. The majority of the Company's direct premiums were written under monthly premium plans. Premiums may be paid by borrowers as part of their monthly mortgage payment and passed through to the Company by the servicer of the loan, or paid directly by the originator of, or investor in the mortgage loan.

As reported in earlier periods, the Company's flagship mortgage guaranty insurance carrier, Republic Mortgage Insurance Company ("RMIC"), had been operating pursuant to a waiver of minimum state regulatory capital requirements since late 2009. This waiver expired on August 31, 2011 and, as a consequence, RMIC and its sister company Republic Insurance Company of North Carolina ("RMICNC"), discontinued writing new business in all states and limited themselves to servicing the run-off of their existing business. They were placed under the North Carolina Department of Insurance's ("NCDOI") administrative supervision the following year and ultimately ordered to defer the payment of 40% of all settled claims as a deferred payment obligation ("DPO").

RMIC has continually evaluated the potential long-term underwriting performance of the run-off book of business based on various modeling techniques. The resulting models take into account actual premium and paid claim experience of prior periods, together with a large number of assumptions and judgments about future outcomes that are highly sensitive to a wide range of estimates. Many of these estimates and underlying assumptions relate to matters over which the Company has no control, including: 1) The conflicted interests, as well as the varying mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices of a large number of insured lending institutions; 2) General economic and industry-specific trends and events; and 3) The evolving or future social and economic policies of the U.S. Government vis-à-vis such critical sectors as the banking, mortgage lending, and housing industries, as well as its policies for resolving the insolvencies and assigning a possible future role to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These matters notwithstanding, RMIC's standard model of forecasted results extending through 2022 continues to reflect ultimate profitability for the book of business. In this regard a long-used RMIC standard model indicates that underwriting performance of the book of business should, in the aggregate, be positive over the extended ten year run-off period assumed to end on or about December 31, 2022.

   

Old Republic International Tax Rate Companies within the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry


Business Segments Q4
Revenues
(in millions $)
Q4
Income
(in millions $)
(Dec 31 2023)
%
(Profit Margin)
Total 1,941.20 190.70 9.82 %

Growth rates by Segment Q4
Y/Y Revenue
%
(Dec 31 2023)
Q/Q Revenue
%
Q4
Y/Y Income
%
(Dec 31 2023)
Q/Q Income
%
Total -17.25 % 10.29 % -62.75 % 262.55 %

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