Essent is a private mortgage insurer (MI). Its core product protects mortgage lenders against losses when borrowers with less than 20% down payment default on their loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are legally required to obtain credit protection on such loans, and private MI is the primary way lenders satisfy that requirement. Essent's customers are banks, credit unions, and non-bank mortgage companies. As of year-end 2025, Essent had roughly $248B of MI in force across about 807,000 insured loans. Essent earns a monthly premium on each insured loan over the life of the policy, averaging about 41 bps of the insured loan balance annually. Revenue scales with insurance in force, policy persistency, and investment income from its ~$6.6B investment portfolio. Essent manages credit risk through proprietary underwriting (its EssentEDGE engine evaluates ~400 loan variables), active portfolio surveillance, and outward reinsurance — roughly 98% of its MI portfolio carries some reinsurance coverage. Beyond core MI, Essent operates Essent Re, a Bermuda-based reinsurer that participates in GSE credit risk transfer and recently entered the Lloyd's P&C reinsurance market. Essent also has an early-stage title insurance business that it views as a long-term option on lower mortgage rates. With organic MI growth constrained by elevated rates, Essent has been actively returning capital through buybacks and dividends, while deploying excess capital into Essent Re's diversification initiatives.