Essent Group's Bermuda unit nine-month premiums climb to $330.3 million

Essent Group's Bermuda reinsurance operation wrote $330.3 million of net premiums in the nine months to Sept. 30, up from $49.3 million a year earlier.

Non-mortgage reinsurance produced $288.2 million of that total, against $817,000 in the same period of 2025, according to results reported by Royal Gazette Bermuda Re.

Net premiums earned rose to $137 million from $45.9 million, while pre-tax income fell to $50.1 million from $59.2 million. The combined ratio climbed to 79.3% from 18.5% as the non-mortgage book added higher claims, acquisition costs and other expenses.

For allocators who treat Essent's mortgage reinsurance as a quasi-fixed-income sleeve, the Bermuda operation now behaves more like a diversified P&C reinsurer. Its 79.3% combined ratio still leaves underwriting profit, but the result rests on non-mortgage claims rather than mortgage persistency. Stockholders' equity slipped to $1.65 billion at Sept. 30 from $1.72 billion a year earlier even as premiums grew more than sixfold.

Mortgage reinsurance premiums fell to $42.1 million from $48.4 million, while mortgage insurance remains the group's largest business, with insurance in force of $250.1 billion, against $248.8 billion a year earlier. New mortgage insurance written was $12.1 billion in the third quarter, down from $14.1 billion in the prior quarter and $12.2 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Group net income for the quarter was $163.4 million, or $1.82 per diluted share, against $164.2 million, or $1.67 per diluted share, a year earlier.

Essent repurchased 7.7 million common shares for $474 million through Oct. 31, and its board approved a new $500 million repurchase program running through the end of 2028. The company declared a quarterly dividend of 35 cents per common share, payable Dec. 10 to shareholders of record on Dec. 1.

As Private Wealth Daily previously reported, reinsurance net premiums were $249 million in the first half, up from $31 million. On those figures, the third quarter alone contributed roughly $81 million of net premiums written, against about $18 million a year earlier.