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Genworth MI Canada Inc

mic · TSX Utilities
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Ticker mic
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Industry Regulated Gas
Employees 201-500
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FY2019 Annual Report · Genworth MI Canada Inc
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ANNUAL REPORT 2019

DELIVERING
ON OUR 
COMMITMENTS

FIVE YEAR HIGHLIGHTS
($ millions, except per share data or otherwise noted) 

2019 

2018 

2017 

2016 

2015

Financial results
Premiums written 
Premiums earned 
Net operating income 
Net income 
Total assets 
Total shareholders’ equity 

Other financial measures 
Loss ratio 
Expense ratio 
Combined ratio 
Minimum Capital Test ratio1 
Operating return on equity 

Per share data 
Book value per share (diluted, incl. AOCI) 
Operating earnings per share (diluted) 
Dividends 

701 
679 
466 
426 
6,820 
3,868 

17% 
20% 
37% 
170% 
12% 

44.58 
5.38 
2.07 

639 
680 
475 
452 
6,889 
3,990 

15% 
19% 
34% 
172% 
12% 

45.21 
5.27 
1.92 

 663  
 676  
 467  
 528  
 6,924  
 3,961  

10% 
20% 
30% 
172% 
13% 

43.13 
5.09 
1.79 

 760  
 638  
 388  
 417  
 6,612  
 3,649  

22% 
19% 
41% 
245% 
11% 

39.28 
4.23 
1.7 

 809
 586
 375
 398
 6,239
 3,420

21%
18%
39%
234%
12%

36.82
4.05
1.59

1 Effective January 1, 2017, the 2016 holding target MCT ratio of 220% was recalibrated to the OSFI Supervisory MCT ratio target of 150% and the minimum MCT ratio under PRMHIA was reduced to 150%.  
Effective January 1, 2019, the MCT ratio was replaced with the MICAT ratio. The OSFI supervisory MICAT target ratio and minimum MICAT ratio under PRMHIA for 2019 remains at 150%.

Book value per share ($) 
(diluted, incl. AOCI)

Dividends per share ($)

Loss ratio (%)

36.82  39.28  43.13  45.21  44.58

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019 

  4.17*

1.59 

1.70 

1.79 

1.92 

2.07

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019

* Denotes special

21% 

22% 

10% 

15% 

17%

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019

Net operating income ($M)

Premiums written ($M)

Premiums earned ($M)

 366 

375 

388 

467 

475 

466

809 

760 

663 

639 

701

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019

586 

638 

676 

680 

679

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018 

2019

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Welcome to Canada’s Largest  
Private Mortgage Insurer 

Genworth MI Canada Inc. (TSX: MIC) through its subsidiary, 
Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Company Canada 
(“Genworth Canada”), is the largest private sector residential 
mortgage insurer in Canada. 

We play a key role in helping to shape the Canadian 
housing market and have done so for almost two decades 
by providing mortgage default insurance to Canadian 
residential mortgage lenders along with thought leadership, 
industry education and market research to support the 
safety and soundness of the mortgage finance system.

Our experienced team of account managers and 
underwriters strives to give each lending institution the 
highest level of service. The work we do together with our 
customers makes homeownership more accessible to first-
time homebuyers across the country.

Please visit www.genworth.ca to learn more. 

1

Message from Stuart Levings

Dear Fellow Shareholders, 

In this letter, I will comment on some key financial highlights from our 2019 results, 
before discussing our assessment of the current environment and the factors 
shaping our outlook for the remainder of the year. Clearly, the environment has 
changed significantly since the start of the year in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic 
and resulting economic shutdown. By mid-March, our business had successfully 
transitioned to a remote working environment in order to protect the well-being of 
our employees and the Company continues to be fully operational as we serve our 
customers during this challenging time. 

I want to take a moment to recognize and thank all the front-line workers who continue 
to put themselves at risk while helping so many during this time of need. I also want 
to commend the governments and federal regulator, for their efforts in helping to ease 
the impact this pandemic is having on Canadians and the Canadian economy.

Delivering on our commitments 

We are pleased with our 2019 results, particularly our top line momentum and the 
progress towards a more efficient capital structure. Overall, we delivered on our 
commitments, with strong underwriting performance in line with our expectations, 
proactive investment management and another year of strong portfolio quality. 

Compared to 2018, we delivered positive changes across a number of key metrics 
including a: 

• 

• 

• 

10 per cent increase in net written premiums,

2 per cent increase in operating earnings per share, and

8 per cent increase in annual ordinary dividends paid to shareholders. 

As part of our ongoing focus on capital efficiency, we returned a total of $608 million 
dollars to shareholders during 2019 in the form of share buybacks, ordinary and 
special dividends. We ended the year with a MICAT ratio of 170 per cent, 5 points 
above the top of our targeted operating range of 160 to 165 per cent.

In 2019 we saw growth in the transactional mortgage insurance market, due in our 
view, to a more confident first time homebuyer and relatively improved affordability, 
driven by lower interest rates and strong income growth. That growth momentum 
continued on into the early part of this year, before slowing as a result of the social 
distancing measures and closure of non-essential businesses in March due to the 
COVID-19 pandemic.

Stuart Levings 
President & Chief Executive Officer

2

At 17 per cent, our 2019 loss ratio came in towards the lower end of our 
estimated range of 15 to 25 per cent, and up 2 points from the prior year. 
This performance reflects the value of a high-quality, well diversified 
insurance portfolio in a resilient economic environment. Clearly, the economic 
environment is changing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will 
impact the level of losses on claims for our business in 2020.

progress on a number of important initiatives despite our remote working 
environment. Given the wide scale adoption of the mortgage payment deferral 
program, we are cross-training some of our underwriters to work in loss 
mitigation as we do expect the volume of delinquencies and therefore workout 
opportunities to increase later in the year as the mortgage payment deferrals 
come to an end. 

We were pleased to see the completion of the acquisition by Brookfield 
Business Partners L.P of Genworth Financial Inc.’s 57 percent interest in the 
Company in December last year. We look forward to our future with our 
new majority shareholder, who we believe, will be of strategic benefit to our 
business over the coming years. I would like to take this opportunity to say 
thank you to the departing directors, including Brian Hurley who served as 
Chairman of the Board since 2009, as well as Jerome Upton, Rohit Gupta and 
Rajinder Singh, for their valuable guidance and insights over the past ten years.

Our strategy is focused on a dynamic, proactive response to the current 
environment while planning for a variety of potential future outcomes. This 
includes the development of plausible economic scenarios and stress testing 
our business under those scenarios in order to adjust the Company’s strategies 
as it responds to the changing market. We take a lot of comfort in the strength 
of our balance sheet and the quality of our insurance inforce. This, together with 
our disciplined risk management and proven loss mitigation strategies, serve as 
important mitigants against economic pressure during times like these. 

Assessing the current economic environment 

It goes without saying that these are truly unprecedented times, both in terms 
of the scale and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the magnitude of 
support from central banks, governments and regulators. 

The federal government has implemented several important programs to help 
Canadians whose income has been or are at risk of being affected by the COVID-19 
pandemic. These programs include the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy 
program, which provides an incentive for eligible employers to retain employees 
with the help of a federal wage subsidy, as well as the Canada Emergency 
Response Benefit, which will pay $2000 per month for up to four months to 
Canadians who have lost the majority of their income. Within the mortgage 
industry, lenders and mortgage insurers have agreed to allow borrowers 
impacted by COVID-19 to defer their mortgage payments for up to 6 months. 

Collectively these measures are aimed at helping to bridge Canadians impacted 
by the current economic shutdown to when the economy begins to recover, 
with the goal of reducing the severity of the impact on people and the 
economy. These programs have a direct impact on our business in terms of the 
level and duration of unemployment, and therefore the ability of borrowers to 
make their mortgage payments. Notwithstanding all of these measures, there 
is still a high level of uncertainty as to how the remainder of this year, and next 
will play out in terms of the health crises and its impact on the economy.

From an immediate, tactical perspective, we enacted our Business Continuity 
Plan earlier in March with all employees working remotely. Our customers 
remain complimentary of our service delivery, and we continue to make 

When it comes to planning for future scenarios, it is clear there are a wider 
range of potential outcomes for the Company in 2020, given the rapidly 
evolving nature and uncertainty related to the COVID-19 impact on the economy.  
Therefore, as noted earlier, we have developed a number of plausible economic 
scenarios for the path of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting duration of 
social distancing measures and non-essential business closures. For example, in 
one scenario we assume that new cases peak in the second quarter, followed 
by a gradual easing of business closures into the third quarter, allowing for 
a degree of economic recovery by the end of the year. This helps to mitigate 
some of the pressure on unemployment, which would end the year in the 8 to 
10 percent range. Under this scenario, we would expect housing activity to be 
significantly reduced during the second quarter as weak consumer confidence 
and social distancing rules impact consumer behavior, followed by a pickup in 
activity in the second half of the year as the economic recovery gets under way. 
House prices do not change materially under this scenario as listings respond 
largely in sync with demand.

We also look at more severe scenarios, for example if the health crises 
continued well into the second half of the year with ongoing business closures 
through the end of 2020. Under this scenario, unemployment would reach a 
higher peak, the impact on housing markets would be more pronounced and 
remain that way through the end of the year. In both scenarios, unemployment 
rates in the oil producing regions are expected to remain more elevated due to 
ongoing pressure on oil prices. Based on these two scenarios and the results of 
our loss forecasting model, we expect our full year 2020 loss ratio range to be 
25 to 40 per cent.

3

New business applications have declined as one would expect in this 
environment, however we have stabilized at approximately half of the prior 
year level for now. We believe market activity will improve once the non-
essential business shut-downs begin to ease and economies begin to recover. 
Overall, we expect the high ratio mortgage market to be smaller than the 
prior year, which will result in lower transactional written premiums for 2020. 
This will be partially offset by a higher volume of portfolio insurance written 
premiums due to increased demand from lenders in response to the Federal 
government’s liquidity and funding programs.

While our overall strategic priorities have not changed, some of them will be 
deferred in order to accommodate the more immediate need to focus on the 
current environment, including;

i. 

Ensuring our employees remain safe, our business continues to have 
sufficient capital and liquidity and our business continuity plan remains 
operational and effective

ii.  Working with our customers, competitors and government to find the best 
solutions to help mitigate the impact of this pandemic on borrowers, our 
industry and the housing market

iii.  Frequent and clear communication to our employees, our customers, our 
shareholders, our board of directors and related government stakeholders.

Strategic initiatives that have not been deferred include the transition of our 
IT and accounting infrastructure from the US to Canada, as well as initiatives 
aimed at driving improved risk selection, customer experience and productivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic environment continues to evolve at a 
rapid pace. We are however encouraged by the dialogue regarding plans for 
re-opening of non-essential businesses across the country, in line with our Base 
case scenario. We continue to monitor the key drivers for our business, and will 
provide updates on our assessment and outlook on a regular basis.

In summary, we believe the Company is well positioned to manage through this 
cycle given the capabilities and experience of our seasoned employee base, our 
disciplined risk management and proven loss mitigation strategies, together 
with our balance sheet strength and quality of insurance inforce.

In conclusion

I would like to thank our employees, customers, board of directors and 
shareholders for your ongoing commitment and support. 

Stuart Levings  
President and Chief Executive Officer

LEADERSHIP TEAM (left to right)  Philip Mayers, SVP, Chief Financial Officer; Debbie McPherson, SVP, Sales & Marketing; 
Stuart Levings, President and CEO;  Mary-Jo Hewat, SVP, Human Resources and Facilities; Winsor Macdonell, SVP, General Counsel and Secretary; 
Craig Sweeney, SVP, Chief Risk Officer; Jim Spitali, SVP, Operations; Zorica (Zoe) Todorovic SVP,  Chief Information Officer

4

 
 
An Inside Look at Our Rebranding Process

The goal of this initiative is to refine the purpose of the brand 
and build upon its internal strengths.

Over the past two decades, Genworth Canada developed a business-to-business 
brand nation-wide that is synonymous with service excellence. 

Now, under new Canadian ownership, we have the opportunity to re-imagine our 
brand. It’s a privilege and a challenge that our team has accepted enthusiastically. 
We’ll bring our new brand to market in late 2020 as an outward expression of 
who we are and what we stand for. Our brand is a valuable intangible asset, we 
think it’s important to let our shareholders and customers know what we’re doing 
behind the scenes to arrive at that all-important day of unveiling. 

Taking Stock 

Early in 2020, we began by taking stock of our brand advantages. Through 
formal interviews with customers, employees and other stakeholders, we 
confirmed what we thought we knew – and identified previously unknown 
perceptions that inspired new thinking.

Universally we heard that lending institutions, both national and regional, have 
come to trust and rely on us for best-in-class technology and processes, prudent 
risk management, and a responsive, accountable culture that cares deeply 
about achieving results for them and for hundreds of thousands of first-time 
homebuyers in Canada.

We learned that we’re recognized for deep and relevant thought leadership and 
for building strong communities as a caring company that improves financial 
literacy for perspective homebuyers and youth. The feedback noted our support 

of affordable homeownership and active encouragement of  the work of 
mortgage professionals and as a company who works tirelessly to improve the 
health of the Canadian housing market.

We’re encouraged to explore new opportunities, leverage hidden talents 
and strengths and told unequivocally to nurture our core capabilities – the 
people and technologies that make us competitive. In short, we validated 
that our brand value extends beyond our corporate name and includes a set 
of intangibles that must be protected and advanced as we prepare for the 
journey ahead. 

Finding Meaning

Armed with this research we started phase two this spring: finding meaning 
and uniting around a brand promise. Brand research shows many of the world’s 
leading companies have proven that extraordinary results can be realized when 
an organization embraces a brand promise. 

A brand promise is not a tagline, it is our value proposition to customers and 
tells them what they can, and should, expect to experience in working with our 
company. It’s the heart and soul of our brand, a purposeful statement of fact 
and one we can benchmark our actions and progress against in the future. We 
now have a working draft of our brand promise and it’ll be introduced when we 
rename the company in the fall.

5

Environmental, Social and  
Governance Reporting

Genworth Canada’s success is built on stakeholder relationships. Everyone in the 
business is empowered to respond to customer needs and deliver value beyond 
mortgage insurance. While our value proposition extends across a wide variety 
of service offerings, we are also focused on important environmental, social and 
governance considerations.

Environmental choices for consumers

Genworth Canada wants to help protect the environment and support consumers 
as they make environmentally friendly choices. Through the Genworth Canada 
Energy-Efficient Housing Program, home buyers purchasing an energy-efficient 
home or making energy saving renovations are eligible for significant premium 
savings when Genworth Canada mortgage insurance is obtained. In 2019, the 
Company rewarded homeowners purchasing energy efficient homes with over 
$625,000 in premium savings.

Social responsibility to support financial literacy

Genworth Canada believes that financial literacy is a critical life skill and actively 
supports financial literacy across Canada primarily through the creation and 
dissemination of educational content on the various stages of buying a home, 
such as dreaming of homeownership, financing, budgeting, house hunting and 
closing the deal. This is delivered in several ways, such as through social media 
channels, national webinars and articles and online resources to first-time 
homebuyers to achieve home ownership responsibly. These are designed to 
help improve the management of personal finances and increase financial 
literacy for home owners, whether they are seniors, low-income earners or new 

Canadians. In addition, Genworth Canada sponsors the University of Waterloo’s 
Accounting and Finance’s Literacy Competition for high school students.  Since 
our involvement,  over 2,800 students have participated in the competition.

Our market research is important to our business. Most notable is our bi-annual 
First-Time Homeownership Study which offers our industry partners valuable 
data and insights on home buying intentions and homeownership perceptions 
of various segments within the housing market. We utilize this data in a variety 
of ways, one of which is to position Genworth Canada as thought leaders and 
educators on the health and state of the housing market. We also monitor the 
financial health of Canadians through our annual sponsorship of the Financial 
Fitness Study, in partnership with the Canadian Association of Credit Counselling 
Services who strive to help Canadians assess their financial fitness. 

Giving back through volunteerism and charitable donations

Genworth Canada’s approach to charitable donations is targeted towards 
affordable housing, wellness and support for local charities. As a founding 
sponsor of Habitat’s Global Village and supporter of the homebuilding grants, 
our programs help to build or rebuild homes in communities affected by natural 
disasters or underserviced areas.  Since 2007, Genworth Canada’s Meaning of 
Home Contest through Habitat has raised over $1.5 million towards helping to 
build decent and affordable housing.

At Genworth Canada, we thrive on a corporate culture that encourages 
the growth of our employees through ongoing training and learning 
opportunities and encourage active volunteerism in the community. We take 
great pride in our philanthropic contributions across Canada, from the work 
of our dedicated employees who take on opportunities to lead and drive 
volunteer activities in their own time, to employees who sit on boards for 
organizations across the country.  

“The partnership established between Genworth Canada and the University of Waterloo’s School 
of Accounting and Finance provides vital support for the Financial Literacy Competition to assist 
in educating and promoting financial responsibility in coordination with high schools across 
the country. The University is grateful for Genworth’s leadership and generous support to help 
students learn to make decisions for a healthy financial future.”   

Steve Fortin, Director, School of Accounting and Finance

6

Genworth Canada Honoured in  
2020 “Women Lead Here” Rankings  

The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business (ROB) recently launched Women Leader 
Here, a comprehensive new annual program that benchmarks the executive 
gender parity performance of the largest publicly-traded companies in Canada. 
Genworth Canada earned 2nd place among a group of companies with market 
capitalizations of more than $5 billion.

As a result, we have been awarded a badge of honour symbolized by a seal 
that can be used on business cards, our website and social media to signal this 
achievement. We commend Canada’s national newspaper for raising public 
awareness – and like Genworth Canada – championing gender diversity. We 
featured eight senior female leaders who represent the company across all 
business lines.

To arrive at its conclusions, Globe and Mail researchers measured the ratio of 
female-identifying individuals at the top three executive levels at Canada’s 
1,000 largest public corporations and used a proprietary scoring system that 
also considered stock performance, profitability and revenue growth to assign 
each company a score. Companies where women held fewer than 30% of overall 
executive roles were excluded, as were companies with only one woman-
identifying executive.

Homeowner Assistance Program (HOAP) 

Strong Corporate Governance

Since 2007, we’ve helped more than 51,000 Genworth Canada-insured 
homeowners across the country stay in their homes during temporary financial 
setbacks.  Genworth Canada’s Homeowner Assistance Program, often referred 
to as HOAP, is dedicated to helping qualified homeowners weather short-term 
financial hardships without sacrificing their homeownership dreams. We 
understand that life happens, and temporary financial difficulties caused by job 
loss, marital separation, illness and other unexpected situations often arise and 
may put pressure on household income.

At Genworth Canada, we strive to always be transparent, act with integrity 
and adhere to sound corporate governance practices.  The foundation of our 
corporate governance framework is an experienced management team and an 
engaged and diverse Board of Directors which bring skills and experiences in 
experience, risk management, mortgage lending, capital markets, investment 
banking, corporate and regulatory governance, actuarial, accounting, audit, 
operations (C-suite). Not only is the Board diverse in skills and knowledgeable 
on the Company’s core mortgage insurance business, it is also diverse in terms 
of gender.  

For more information please refer to our  
Public Accountability Statement on Genworth.ca.

7

Shareholder Information

Exchange Listing  
The Toronto Stock Exchange

Common Share Trading Symbol 
MIC

Common Shares 
As at December 31, 2019, there were 86,228,879 common shares (basic) 
outstanding.

Registrar and Transfer Agent

AST Trust Company 
1 Toronto Street, Suite 1200 
Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V6 
Tel: 416-682-3800 
Fax: 416-643-5570 
www.astfinancial.com/ca-en

Investor Relations

Shareholders, security analysts and investment professionals should direct 
inquiries to:

Aaron Williams 
Vice-President, Investor Relations 
905 287 5504 
investor@genworth.com

Additional financial information has been filed electronically with various 
securities regulators in Canada through the System for Electronic Document 
Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and with the Office of the Superintendent 
of Financial Institutions (OSFI) as the primary regulator for the Company’s 
subsidiary, Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Company Canada.

Website 
www.genworth.ca

All inquiries related to address changes, elimination of multiple mailings, 
transfer of MIC shares, dividends or other shareholder account issues should be 
forwarded to the offices of AST Trust Company.

Conference Calls 
The Company holds a conference call following the release of its quarterly results. 
These calls are archived in the Investor section of the Company’s website.

Common Share Dividend Policy 
The declaration and payment of dividends and the amount thereof are at 
the discretion of the Board, which takes into account the Company’s financial 
results, capital requirements, available cash flow and other factors the Board 
considers relevant from time to time.

Independent Auditors 
Ernst & Young LLP 
100 Adelaide Street West 
P.O. Box 1 
Toronto, Ontario M5H 0B3

Eligible Dividend Designation 
For purposes of the dividend tax credit rules contained in the Income Tax 
Act (Canada) and any corresponding provincial or territorial tax legislation, 
all dividends (and deemed dividends) paid by Genworth MI Canada Inc. 
to Canadian residents are designated as eligible dividends. Unless stated 
otherwise, all dividends (and deemed dividends) paid by the Company 
hereafter are designated as eligible dividends for the purposes of such rules.

Information for Shareholders Outside Canada 
Dividends paid to residents in countries with which Canada has bilateral tax 
treaties are generally subject to the 15% Canadian non-resident withholding tax. 
There is no Canadian tax on gains from the sale of shares (assuming ownership 
of less than 25%) or debt instruments of the Company owned by non-residents 
not carrying on business in Canada. (No government in Canada levies estate 
taxes or succession duties.)

Complaints about the Company’s internal accounting controls or auditing 
matters or any other concerns may be addressed directly to the Board of 
Directors or the Audit Committee at:

Board of Directors 
Genworth MI Canada Inc. 
c/o Winsor Macdonell, Secretary 
2060 Winston Park Drive, Suite 300 
Oakville, Ontario L6H 5R7 
Tel: 905-287-5484

8

 
 
Board of Directors Genworth MI Canada Inc.

David Nowak 
Chair of the Board

Sidney Horn

Andrea Bolger

Spencer Enright

Paul Forestell

Sharon Giffen

Martin Laguerre

Stuart Levings
President and  
Chief Executive Officer

Neil Parkinson

Additional Directors of Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance Company Canada:

Brian Kelly

John Walker

Corporate Ombudsperson 
Concerns related to compliance with the law, Genworth policies or government contracting requirements may be directed to:

Genworth Ombudsperson 
2060 Winston Park Drive, Suite 300 
Oakville, Ontario L6H 5R7 
Tel: 905-287-5510 
Canada-ombudsperson@genworth.com

Disclosure documents 
Corporate governance, disclosure and other investor information is available online from the Investor Relations pages of the Company’s website at  
http://investor.genworthmicanada.ca.

Cautionary statements 
The cautionary statements included in the Company’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form, including the “Special note  
regarding forward-looking statements” and the “Non-IFRS financial measures,” also apply to this Annual Report and all information and documents included  
herein. These documents can be found at www.sedar.com.

9

TSX: MIC 
genworth.ca