MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mihir Bhatia: Okay. And then maybe just going to expenses, if it’s okay. For many, many years, MGIC was the market leader in terms of like just having the lowest expense ratio in the industry. 2023, on the other hand — 2022, sorry, on the other hand, was quite different. Was there a little bit of a catch-up in 2022? And I guess the question is like I know you gave numbers for 2023, but I’m just talking about just more generally, is the expense philosophy a little different going forward? How are you thinking about that expense ratio? Just is there a target expense ratio you work towards? Just trying to understand like your philosophy around expenses because there does seem to be a little bit of a change.

Timothy Mattke: Yes. No, I appreciate the question, Mihir. I’ll start and Nathan can chime in if he wants to. I think it’s safe to say that over the last couple of years, we felt it important to invest in the platform over the long run. Part of that is to make sure we invest on the actual technology platforms that are legacy, but a big part of it is investing in our data and analytical capabilities that we think are critical as the industry continues to evolve. As Nathan called out sort of the biggest headwind in Q4 was really related to the pension expense and really, that’s coming from the discount rate moving up there as much as anything. So I think you should think about us as continuing to be very focused and disciplined on expenses.

I think Nathan talked about where we think we’ll be in ’23. It’s a reflection of us wanting to exercise discipline around expenses because we do believe that over the long run, within this industry, being good stewards of how you spend dollars is very important although you have to do it. You have to invest in the platform to make sure that you can continue to progress and grow over the long run. So I wouldn’t say a change in philosophy as much as the recognition that we have to invest to grow over the long run to be as competitive as we can in the marketplace, but we want to do that in a very thoughtful manner.

Mihir Bhatia: Got it. And then just my last question. Just within more and more mortgage companies offering higher interest rate, buydowns and things like that, do you underwrite those differently? How do you think that some of those kinds of, I guess, innovations will impact the credit performance longer term?

Timothy Mattke: No, it’s a good question, Mihir. And it’s innovation or it’s — I think the concern would be a return to what we’ve seen before. I think the good news is buydowns, I think we’ll get a lot of press. I think rightfully so, as we — hopefully, people have long memories. The good news is for anything that we underwrite their buydowns, normally, those are qualifying, assuming that there is no buydown. So qualifying that at the sort of the full rate. So that makes us — give a certain comfort level over that there’s not undue risk being put into that loan. Always have some concern about payment shock example. But if they’re underwritten with the thought that there is not the buydown in there, that goes a long way towards making sure that you have a borrower who cannot only get in the home but can sustain that at a level. So I feel generally comfortable about what’s happening in that aspect of the market right now.

Operator: And our next question comes from Doug Harter from Credit Suisse.

Douglas Harter: Just one more on the market share outlook. Just wondering if there’s anything that’s kind of changed in your view that’s leading to that, whether it’s kind of your outlook on credit quality or your outlook on kind of the competitive dynamics that kind of led to this happening kind of 4Q and into ’23?