The mortgage insurance division of Genworth Financial reported a third-quarter loss of $152 million, after posting a $116 million loss for the year-earlier period, as problems with its Florida book of business continued to worsen.
Sandler O'Neill analysts and others had projected the division would post a loss of less than $40 million.
Genworth noted that its Florida "cure rate" on bad loans is 10%, versus 25% for all other states.
(For Florida alone the company booked an $85 million loan-loss reserve. The state accounts for 16% of Genworth's claims paid, the largest ratio for the company.)
Overall, Genworth reported a profit of $83 million, or 17 cents a share, versus a profit of $19 million, or 4 cents a share, for the third quarter of 2009.
Genworth ranks fifth among mortgage insurers in policies-in-force, according to National Mortgage News' Quarterly Data Report.
