Old Republic International Corporation

My name is Joanne and I'll be the conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Old Republic International Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star 1. I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Calabrese with the Financial Relations Board. Sir, you may begin your conference.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Old Republic Conference Call to discuss second quarter 2022 results. This morning, we distributed a copy of the press release and posted a separate financial supplement which we assume you have seen and or otherwise have access to during the call. Both of the documents are available at Old Republic's website, which is www.oldrepublic.com. Please be advised that this call may involve forward-looking statements as discussed in the press release and financial supplement dated July 28th, 2022. Risks associated with these statements can be found in the company's latest SEC filings. This afternoon's conference call will be led by Craig Smitty, President and CEO of Old Republic International Corporation, and several other senior executive members as planned for this meeting. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Craig Smitty. Please go ahead, sir.

Okay. Thank you, Joe. And good afternoon, everyone, and welcome again to Old Republic's second quarter earnings call. With me today, I have Frank Sidaro, our CFO of Old Republic International, and Carolyn Monroe, the president of our title insurance business. Well, Old Republic produced another highly profitable quarter in both general insurance and title insurance, even though title insurance revenues and operating income were less than the record setting 2021 results due to the increasing mortgage rate environment. Net premiums and fees earned were just below $2 billion, while pre-tax operating income was $263 million. And our consolidated combined ratio continues to come in at a strong level, just under 91% for the quarter. In general insurance, net premiums earned increased over the prior year by almost 9%. And in line with what we expected, title insurance net premium and fees decreased by 7% from that prior record-setting year. Both general insurance and title insurance continue to produce excellent underwriting results reflected in those combined ratios, and both are poised to continue to deliver strong profits throughout the remainder of the year. So I'll now turn the discussion over to Frank, and then he'll turn things back to me to cover general insurance, followed by Carolyn. We'll discuss title insurance, and then we'll open it up to the Q&A. So Frank?