Finance committee  It is consistent with the two other largest mortgage insurance markets in the world, which are the United States and Australia. It provides a consistent viewpoint that is there for countries. I mentioned earlier that any change to this requirement needs to be done slowly and be

Finance committee  That is completely correct. The biggest concern in the research we had on this was that you could inadvertently disadvantage many consumers out there who had less than perfect credit, or perhaps lived in different regions of the country. That is really the kind of change that req

Finance committee  Certainly. In terms of our submission, we actually engaged two academics to research this issue for papers. One was a known Canadian real estate economist by the name of Frank Clayton, and the other, Dr. Susan Wachter, was a specialist on real estate finance out of the Wharton

Finance committee  One of the important things to think about in regard to the different brackets is that the mandatory nature of mortgage insurance is not just a cost put on consumers; it is actually a way of allowing low down-payment mortgages to obtain the lowest interest rate possible from the

Finance committee  Mr. McKay, I do not know the exact number. It has been quite low with the economy being strong for the past few years, so the default rate has not been high. That area, though, historically does represent a level of risk in Canada. When you go back over the past 30 years, there h

Finance committee  No, it's not, because the premium is much lower in that segment. The premium obviously goes up with the risk associated with the loan-to-value segment. As you put less money down, the premium goes up.

Finance committee  I don't know the specific numbers. To generally characterize it, the 75% to 80% is a much smaller area of business for us in terms of what we underwrite coming through the door. Most people who do low down-payment mortgages generally put 5% or 10% down.

Finance committee  Good afternoon. My name is Winsor Macdonell. I am the Senior Vice-President and General Counsel for Genworth Financial Canada. Our president, Peter Vukanovich, could not be here today and sends his regrets. I would like to thank the committee for allowing me to participate in t