Fitch Issues Report On Title Insurance Industry's Risk Adjusted Capital Position

July 18, 2005

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has completed its study on the U.S. title insurance industry's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) position at year-end 2004. The RAC ratio for Fitch's aggregate title insurer universe decreased slightly in 2004 relative to year-end 2003. This decrease reflects growth in several of the risk components of our model, particularly related to potential adverse claims development and large policy loss exposures. While adjusted surplus grew modestly in 2004, it did not match the growth in these risk factors.

The study's results reveal that the title industry remains well capitalized overall, though there remain significant disparities in capital strength among individual companies. Based on developments to date in 2005, Fitch believes that its title insurance universe will remain at adequate capital levels over the near term even though operating results are expected to trend downward.


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