NMI Holdings Inc

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the NMI Holdings Inc. fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star, then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Swenson. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon and welcome to the 2022 fourth quarter conference call for National MI. I'm John Swenson, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury. Joining us on the call today are Brad Schuster, Executive Chairman, Adam Politzer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ravi Malela, Chief Financial Officer, and Nick Riomuto, our Controller. Financial results for the quarter were released after the close today. The press release may be accessed on NMI's website, located at nationalmi.com, under the Investors tab. During the course of this call, we may make comments about our expectations for the future. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. Additional information about the factors that could cause actual results or trends to differ materially from those discussed on the call can be found on our website or through our regulatory filings at the SEC. If and to the extent the company makes forward-looking statements, we do not undertake any obligation to update those statements in the future in light of subsequent developments. Further, no one should rely on the fact that the guidance of such statements is current at any time other than the time of this call. Also note that on this call, we refer to certain non-GAAP measures. In today's press release and on our website, we provided a reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable measures under GAAP. Now I'll turn the call over to Brad.

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to report that in the fourth quarter, National MI again delivered strong operating performance, significant growth in our insured portfolio, and standout financial results, capping a year of tremendous success. We closed 2022 with $59 billion of total NIW volume and a record $184 billion of high quality, high performing primary insurance and force. We delivered broad success in customer development, continued to innovate in the reinsurance market, and once again achieved industry-leading credit performance. We generated a record $292.9 million of GAAP net income in 2022, up 27% compared to 2021, and delivered an 18.4% return on equity for the year. 2022 marked National MI's 10-year anniversary and our success during the year is particularly gratifying. We founded the company in 2012 with a goal to provide a differentiated commitment and standard of service and a clear vision as to how we should engage in the market to drive value for our borrowers, our lender customers, our employees, our shareholders, and other important stakeholders. From the beginning, we focused on building National MI in a sustainable, risk-responsible manner, positioning our business to perform across all market cycles. This approach has served us well, and we closed 2022 in a position of tremendous growth. Looking ahead into 2023, we all recognize that there is risk in the economy broadly and the housing market specifically. However, we're confident in our ability to deliver strong performance through the cycle. We have an exceptionally high quality insured portfolio. Our existing borrowers have strong credit profiles, significant embedded equity in their homes, and most benefit from having locked in record low 30-year fixed rate mortgages with manageable debt service obligations. Our exposure sits under the protection of a broad risk transfer umbrella and is further supported by the strength of our balance sheet and significant earnings power of our franchise. Looking out over the longer term, I'm excited at the opportunity we have to deliver on our next 10 years of success. National MI is well positioned to continue to lead with impact and drive value for our people, our customers, and their borrowers, and our shareholders.