The mortgage insurance business is a very important part of our business. During the last financial crisis, CMHC's market share grew very substantially. At one point, because there was the withdrawal of private insurers, CMHC had about 90% market share of the insured space. Since the last financial crisis, we have been deliberately decreasing our market share, because we feel it's good to have competition from our private sector competitors in the mortgage insurance space.
Having said that, we're very aware of the importance that mortgage insurance plays in financial stability. We have a target that's approved by our board to strive for about 40% to 50% of the market. We're a little bit below that right now, and we're working hard to achieve more market share, but again, we have to compete with the private sector players and we have to up our game in terms of providing better service to our clients.
However, even though we have a lower market share than we'd like, I am not concerned about that, because we have the expertise and capabilities in-house to scale up our business if needed. From the perspective of acting on our financial stability mandate, we feel that CMHC has the capability to support government and the needs of the day.