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Note 12 - Commitments and Contingencies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2017
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments and Contingencies
Legal Proceedings
See Note 13 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2016 Form 10-K for information regarding our accounting policies for contingencies.
We are routinely involved in a number of legal actions and proceedings, including litigation and other disputes arising in the ordinary course of our business. The legal and regulatory matters discussed below and in our 2016 Form 10-K could result in adverse judgments, settlements, fines, injunctions, restitutions or other relief that could require significant expenditures or have other effects on our business. Management believes, based on current knowledge and after consultation with counsel, that the outcome of such actions will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition. However, the outcome of litigation and other legal and regulatory matters and proceedings is inherently uncertain, and it is possible that one or more of the matters currently pending or threatened could have an unanticipated adverse effect on our liquidity, financial condition or results of operations for any particular period.
As described in Note 9, on September 4, 2014, we received formal Notices of Deficiency from the IRS related to certain tax losses and deductions resulting from our investment in a portfolio of non-economic REMIC residual interests. We believe that an adequate provision for income taxes has been made for the potential liabilities that may result from this matter. However, if the ultimate resolution of this matter produces a result that differs materially from our current expectations, there could be a material impact on our effective tax rate, results of operations and cash flows.



On December 22, 2016, Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC and Homeward Residential, Inc. (collectively, “Ocwen”) filed a complaint against Radian Guaranty (the “Complaint”). Ocwen has also initiated legal proceedings against several other mortgage insurers. The action filed against Radian Guaranty, titled Ocwen, et al. v. Radian Guaranty, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (the “Court”). The Complaint alleged breach of contract and bad faith claims and sought monetary damages and declaratory relief in regard to certain claims handling practices on future insurance claims. On December 17, 2016, Ocwen separately filed a parallel arbitration petition against Radian Guaranty (the “Petition”) before the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) that asserted substantially the same allegations as contained in the Complaint (the Complaint and the Petition are collectively referred to as the “Filings”). The Filings listed 9,420 mortgage insurance certificates (“Certificates”) issued under multiple insurance policies, including Pool Insurance policies, as being the subject of these proceedings. On March 3, 2017, Radian Guaranty filed with the Court: (i) a motion to dismiss Ocwen’s Complaint or, in the alternative, for a more definite statement and (ii) a motion to enjoin Ocwen’s parallel arbitration. On March 17, 2017, the Court held an initial pretrial conference and issued orders directing Ocwen to amend its Complaint. On June 5, 2017, Ocwen filed an Amended Complaint and an Amended Petition (collectively, the “Amended Filings”) with the Court and the AAA, respectively. The Amended Filings together list 8,870 Certificates as being the subject of these proceedings. On June 30, 2017, Radian Guaranty filed with the Court renewed motions to dismiss Ocwen’s Amended Complaint and to enjoin Ocwen’s parallel arbitration. On July 20, 2017, the Court denied Radian Guaranty’s motion to dismiss Ocwen’s Amended Complaint, and on July 27, 2017, the Court denied Radian Guaranty’s motion to enjoin Ocwen’s parallel arbitration. Radian Guaranty believes that the claims in the Amended Filings are without merit and legally deficient and plans to defend these claims vigorously. We are not able to estimate a reasonably possible loss, if any, or range of loss in this matter because of the preliminary stage of the proceedings.
We also are periodically subject to reviews and audits, as well as inquiries, information-gathering requests and investigations. In connection with these matters, from time to time we receive requests and subpoenas seeking information and documents related to aspects of our business. In March 2017, Green River Capital, a subsidiary of Clayton, received a letter from the staff of the SEC stating that it is conducting an investigation captioned, “In the Matter of Certain Single Family Rental Securitizations,” and that it is requesting information from market participants. The letter asks Green River Capital to provide information regarding broker price opinions that Green River Capital provided on properties included in SFR securitization transactions. Green River Capital is cooperating with the SEC.
Our Master Policies establish the timeline within which any suit or action arising from any right of an insured under the policy generally must be commenced. In general, any suit or action arising from any right of an insured under the policy must be commenced within two years after such right first arose for primary insurance and within three years for certain other policies, including certain Pool Insurance policies. Although we believe that our Loss Mitigation Activities are justified under our policies, from time to time we face challenges from certain lender and servicer customers regarding our Loss Mitigation Activities, which have resulted in some reversals of our decisions regarding Rescissions, Claim Denials or Claim Curtailments. We are currently in discussions with these customers regarding our Loss Mitigation Activities and claim payment practices, which if not resolved, could result in arbitration or judicial proceedings and we may need to reassume the risk on, and increase loss reserves for, the associated policies or pay additional claims. See Note 10 for additional information.
Further, there are loans in our total defaulted portfolio (in particular, our older defaulted portfolio) for which actions or proceedings (such as foreclosure) may not have been commenced within the outermost deadline in our Prior Master Policy. We are evaluating these loans regarding this potential violation and our corresponding rights under the Prior Master Policy. While we can provide no assurance regarding the ultimate resolution of these issues, it is possible that arbitration or legal proceedings could result.
Other
Securities regulations became effective in 2005 that impose enhanced disclosure requirements on issuers of ABS (including mortgage-backed securities). To allow our customers to comply with these regulations at that time, we typically were required, depending on the amount of credit enhancement we were providing, to provide: (i) audited financial statements for the insurance subsidiary participating in the transaction or (ii) a full and unconditional holding company-level guarantee for our insurance subsidiaries’ obligations in such transactions. Radian Group has guaranteed two structured transactions for Radian Guaranty involving $104.2 million of remaining credit exposure as of June 30, 2017.