Notorious for the slender disclosures it chooses to make relating to its lenders mortgage insurance division, QBE Insurance Group has owned up, once more, that this business is going backwards.

“LMI gross written premium declined further by 21 per cent to $38 million in the period” QBE said in its half year results for June 2024 on Friday.

QBE said this “reflected a market slowdown driven by higher interest rates and inflationary pressure, alongside the impact from government initiatives to support first home buyers.”

Maybe. The rate of credit growth has stepped down over the last couple of years, consistent with restrictive settings for monetary policy.

On the other hand, thanks to the refinancing boom tied to the roll off of low rate fixed rate mortgages, new business volumes for home loan funding have soared, on ABS data.

“The LMI result was characterised by further reduction in gross written premium, albeit a strong underwriting result which was supported by favourable prior year development” QBE said.

Not that QBE informed their shareholders what this underwriting result might actually be.

LMI represents 3.4 per cent of QBE’s net insurance revenue.

National Australia Bank is QBE’s cornerstone customer.

QBE may well also see itself as in the running to nab Commonwealth Bank as a client.

In late June, and for only the second time in 60 years, Commonwealth Bank made it known it was seeking a Request for Proposals for it lenders mortgage insurance business, a contract held all these decades by Helia.

QBE has refuted the suggestion (reported by Banking Day) that it was seeking an exit from lenders mortgage insurance.