New mortgage insurer opening in Radnor

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2009 | by Harold Brubaker Inquirer Staff Writer

Investors have poured $500 million into a new mortgage-insurance company, Essent Guaranty Inc., that is based in Radnor and headed by a local financial executive, the company announced today.

Essent, backed by Wall Street investment firms and reinsurance companies, is being launched at a time of turmoil and uncertainty in the mortgage-insurance industry, which is reeling from billions in losses and dogged by doubts about its future.

Essent's president and chief executive officer, Mark A. Casale, a former top executive with Philadelphia mortgage-insurance competitor Radian Group Inc., cast those doubts aside in an interview.

"We believe that mortgage insurance is essential to the U.S. housing system," said Casale, a graduate of La Salle High School and St....