The nation’s five biggest title insurers saw operating revenue from title operations fall 12 percent in 2007 and may experience another 20 percent drop this year, analysts at Fitch Ratings said in issuing their first-ever negative rating outlook for the industry as a whole.
The negative rating outlook — the first since Fitch began covering the industry in the early 1990s — was prompted by expected declines in mortgage originations, and expectations that mounting losses will eat away at capital levels, analysts said. more…