Within Canada Guaranty, approximately 80% of our existing risk in force is borrowers who are on a five-year fixed term, and I am going to assume that's equivalent or similar to our competitors
I would say, sir, that the one-year to two-year fixed term is a very modest percentage of the total book, both from a portfolio point of view and from the point of view of new flow coming in.
What we have witnessed over the past year is a fairly significant interest rate differential between variable rate mortgages and five-year rate mortgages, where variable rates have become very attractive to borrowers, both in the insurance space and I assume also in the uninsured space. We have seen a significant uptake in the variable rate insurers.
If I could provide some comfort, while there has been a significant uptick—and I believe it's in the 30% to 35% range, though I can confirm that for the committee—the borrower profile of a first-time homebuyer who chooses the variable rate tends to be a little bit more sophisticated and perhaps in a more financially secure situation than the first-time homebuyer who chooses the five-year fixed term.
We've seen a difference in credit scores as well. The variable rate borrower has a higher credit score than the first-time homebuyer who chooses the five-year fixed rate.
We haven't seen any delta or differential in our background in terms of default performance between a variable rate borrower and a fixed term borrower. In fact, our view, based on historical analysis, is that variable rate mortgages perform very well.