Underwriting

Last updated

Underwriting (UW) [1] services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liability arising from such guarantee. An underwriting arrangement may be created in a number of situations including insurance, issues of security in a public offering, and bank lending, among others. The person or institution that agrees to sell a minimum number of securities of the company for commission is called the underwriter.

Contents

History

The term "underwriting" derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market. Financial backers (or risk takers), who would accept some of the risk on a given venture (historically a sea voyage with associated risks of shipwreck) in exchange for a premium, would literally write their names under the risk information that was written on a Lloyd's slip created for this purpose. [2] [3]

Securities underwriting

In the financial primary market, securities underwriting is the process by which investment banks raise investment capital from buyers on behalf of corporations and governments by issuing securities (such as stocks or bonds). As an underwriter, the investment bank guarantees a price for these securities, facilitates the issuance of the securities, and then sells them to the public (or retains them for their own proprietary account). [4] This process is often seen in initial public offerings (IPOs), where investment banks help a corporation raise funds from the public. The underwriter is obligated to purchase the entire issue at a predetermined price before reselling the securities in the market. [5] Should they not be able to find buyers, they will have to hold some securities themselves. To reduce the risk, they may form a syndicate with other investment banks. Each bank will buy a portion of the security issue, and typically resell securities from that portion to the public. [6] Underwriters make their profit from the price difference (called "underwriting spread") between the price they pay the issuer and what they collect from buyers or from broker-dealers who buy portions of the offering.

The services provided in the process of underwriting include:

  1. Giving advice on whether to issue stocks or bonds, the timing of issuance (ideally, corporations should sell securities when they will obtain the highest possible price). Underwriters also have to determine at what price the security should be sold. [7]
  2. Filing documents: assisting companies with making the filings required by financial authorities. Companies issuing new securities to the general public must file a registration statement detailing their financial conditions, management, competition, industry, experience, funding purposes, and securities' risk assessment. A portion of this statement is reproduced in a document called a prospectus, which investors can access to obtain information about new securities. [8]
  3. Underwriting: A company sells the entire issue to the underwriter at an agreed price. The underwriter will then sell it to the public at a higher price to achieve a profit, to the extent that it does not retain part of the issue as a proprietary holding. [6]

Risk, exclusivity, and reward

Once the underwriting agreement is struck, the underwriter bears the risk of being unable to sell the underlying securities, and the cost of holding them on its books until such time in the future that they may be favorably sold.

If the instrument is desirable, the underwriter and the securities issuer may choose to enter into an exclusivity agreement. In exchange for a higher price paid upfront to the issuer, or other favorable terms, the issuer may agree to make the underwriter the exclusive agent for the initial sale of the securities instrument. That is, even though third-party buyers might approach the issuer directly to buy, the issuer agrees to sell exclusively through the underwriter.

In summary, the securities issuer gets cash up front, access to the contacts and sales channels of the underwriter, and is insulated from the market risk of being unable to sell the securities at a good price. The underwriter receives a profit from the markup, plus the possibility of an exclusive sales agreement.

Also, if the securities are priced significantly below market price (as is often the custom), the underwriter also curries favor with powerful customers by granting them an immediate profit (see flipping), perhaps in a quid pro quo . This practice, which is typically justified as the reward for the underwriter for taking on the market risk, is occasionally criticized as unethical, such as the allegations that investment banker Frank Quattrone acted improperly in doling out hot IPO stock during the dot-com bubble.

In an attempt to capture more of the value of their securities for themselves, issuing companies are increasingly turning to alternative vehicles for going public, such as direct listings and SPACs.[ citation needed ]

Bank underwriting

In banking, underwriting is the detailed credit analysis preceding the granting of a loan, based on credit information furnished by the borrower; such underwriting falls into several areas:

Underwriting can also refer to the purchase of corporate bonds, commercial paper, government securities, municipal general-obligation bonds by a commercial bank or dealer bank for its own account or for resale to investors. Bank underwriting of corporate securities is carried out through separate holding-company affiliates, called securities affiliates or Section 20 affiliates.[ citation needed ]

Of late, the discourse on underwriting has been dominated by the advent of machine learning in this space. These profound technological innovations are altering the way traditional underwriting scorecards have been built, and are displacing human underwriters with automation. Natural language understanding allows the consideration of more sources of information to assess risk than used previously. [9] These algorithms typically use modern data sources such as SMS / Email for banking information, location data to verify addresses, and so on. Several firms are trying to build models that can gauge a customer's willingness to pay using social media data by applying natural language understanding algorithms which essentially try to analyse and quantify a person's popularity / likability and so on, with the premise being that people scoring high on these parameters are less likely to default on a loan. However, this area is still vastly subjective.[ citation needed ]

Insurance underwriting

Insurance underwriters evaluate the risk and exposures of potential clients. They decide how much coverage the client should receive, how much they should pay for it, and whether to accept the risk. Underwriting involves measuring risk exposure and determining the premium that needs to be charged to insure that risk. The function of the underwriter is to protect the company's book of business from risks that they feel will make a loss and issue insurance policies at a premium that is commensurate with the exposure presented by a risk.

Each insurance company has its own set of underwriting guidelines to help the underwriter determine whether or not the company should accept the risk. The information used to evaluate the risk of an applicant for insurance will depend on the type of coverage involved. For example, in underwriting automobile coverage, an individual's driving record is critical. However, the type of automobile is actually far more critical.[ citation needed ] As part of the underwriting process for life or health insurance, medical underwriting may be used to examine the applicant's health status (other factors may be considered as well, such as occupation and risky pursuits) and decide whether the policy can be issued on the standard terms applicable to the customer's age. The factors that insurers use to classify risks are generally objective, clearly related to the likely cost of providing coverage, practical to administer, consistent with applicable law, and designed to protect the long-term viability of the insurance program. [10]

The underwriters may decline the risk, or may provide a quotation in which the premiums have been loaded (including the amount needed to generate a profit, in addition to covering expenses [11] ) or in which various exclusions have been stipulated, which restrict the circumstances under which a claim would be paid. Depending on the type of insurance product (line of business), insurance companies use automated underwriting systems to encode these rules, and reduce the amount of manual work in processing quotations and policy issuance. This is especially the case for certain simpler life or personal lines (auto, homeowners) insurance. Some insurance companies, however, rely on agents to underwrite for them. This arrangement allows an insurer to operate in a market closer to its clients without having to establish a physical presence.

Two major categories of exclusion in insurance underwriting are moral hazard and correlated losses. [12] With a moral hazard, the consequences of the customer's actions are insured, making the customer more likely to take costly actions. For example, bedbugs are typically excluded from homeowners' insurance to avoid paying for the consequence of recklessly bringing in a used mattress. [12] Insured events are generally those outside the control of the customer, for example in life insurance, death by automobile accident is typically covered, but death by suicide is typically not covered. [ citation needed ] Correlated losses are those that can affect a large number of customers at the same time, thus potentially bankrupting the insurance company. This is why typical homeowner's policies cover damage from fire or falling trees (usually affecting an individual house), but not floods or earthquakes (which affect many houses at the same time). [12]

For all types of insurance underwriting, advice and assistance is often provided by reinsurers, who of course have an interest in accepting risks on appropriate terms. [13]

Other forms

Continuous underwriting

Continuous underwriting is the process in which the risks involved in insuring people or assets are being evaluated and analyzed on a continuous basis. It evolved from the traditional underwriting, in which the risks only get assessed before the policy is signed or renewed. Continuous underwriting was first used in workers' compensation, where the premium of the insurance was updated monthly, based on the insured's submitted payroll. It is also used in life insurance [14] and cyber insurance. [15] [16]

Real estate underwriting

Real estate underwriting is the evaluation of a real estate investment, either of equity ownership or of a real estate loan. The underwriting process generally involves a detailed analysis of expected cash flows, the local market, supply and demand, and risks such as the physical state of the property, environmental or geotechnical risks, zoning, taxes, and insurance. In the evaluation of a real estate loan, lenders assess both the risk of lending to a specific borrower as well as the risk of the underlying real estate. Loan underwriters use various metrics including debt service coverage ratio, loan-to-value ratio, and debt yield ratio to assess out whether the property is capable of making debt service payments.

Forensic underwriting

Forensic underwriting is the "after-the-fact" process used by lenders to determine what went wrong with a mortgage. [17] Forensic underwriting is a borrower's ability to work out a modification scenario with their current lien holder, not to qualify them for a new loan or a refinance. This is typically done by an underwriter staffed with a team of people who are experienced in every aspect of the real estate field.

Sponsorship underwriting

Underwriting may also refer to financial sponsorship of a venture, and is also used as a term within public broadcasting (both public television and radio) to describe funding given by a company or organization for the operations of the service, in exchange for a mention of their product or service within the station's programming.

Thomson Financial league tables

Underwriting activity in the mergers and acquisitions, equity issuance, debt issuance, syndicated loans and U.S. municipal bond markets is reported in the Thomson Financial league tables. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital market</span> Financial market

A capital market is a financial market in which long-term debt or equity-backed securities are bought and sold, in contrast to a money market where short-term debt is bought and sold. Capital markets channel the wealth of savers to those who can put it to long-term productive use, such as companies or governments making long-term investments. Financial regulators like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Bank of England (BoE) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversee capital markets to protect investors against fraud, among other duties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial market</span> Generic term for all markets in which trading takes place with capital

A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets as commodities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security (finance)</span> Tradable financial asset

A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any form of financial instrument, even though the underlying legal and regulatory regime may not have such a broad definition. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equity and fixed income instruments. In some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e.g., equity warrants.

An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment banks, who also arrange for the shares to be listed on one or more stock exchanges. Through this process, colloquially known as floating, or going public, a privately held company is transformed into a public company. Initial public offerings can be used to raise new equity capital for companies, to monetize the investments of private shareholders such as company founders or private equity investors, and to enable easy trading of existing holdings or future capital raising by becoming publicly traded.

Credit risk is the possibility of losing a lender holds due to a risk of default on a debt that may arise from a borrower failing to make required payments. In the first resort, the risk is that of the lender and includes lost principal and interest, disruption to cash flows, and increased collection costs. The loss may be complete or partial. In an efficient market, higher levels of credit risk will be associated with higher borrowing costs. Because of this, measures of borrowing costs such as yield spreads can be used to infer credit risk levels based on assessments by market participants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial services</span> Economic service provided by the finance industry

Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.

Asset-based lending is any kind of lending secured by an asset. This means, if the loan is not repaid, the asset is taken. In this sense, a mortgage is an example of an asset-based loan. More commonly however, the phrase is used to describe lending to business and large corporations using assets not normally used in other loans. Typically, the different types of asset-based loans include accounts receivable financing, inventory financing, equipment financing, or real estate financing. Asset-based lending in this more specific sense is possible only in certain countries whose legal systems allow borrowers to pledge such assets to lenders as collateral for loans.

A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Like other private label securities backed by assets, a CDO can be thought of as a promise to pay investors in a prescribed sequence, based on the cash flow the CDO collects from the pool of bonds or other assets it owns. Distinctively, CDO credit risk is typically assessed based on a probability of default (PD) derived from ratings on those bonds or assets.

Bank of America Home Loans is the mortgage unit of Bank of America. It previously existed as an independent company called Countrywide Financial from 1969 to 2008. In 2008, Bank of America purchased the failing Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. In 2006, Countrywide financed 20% of all mortgages in the United States, at a value of about 3.5% of the United States GDP, a proportion greater than any other single mortgage lender.

A syndicated loan is one that is provided by a group of lenders and is structured, arranged, and administered by one or several commercial banks or investment banks known as lead arrangers.

An asset-backed security (ABS) is a security whose income payments, and hence value, are derived from and collateralized by a specified pool of underlying assets.

A commercial mortgage is a mortgage loan secured by commercial property, such as an office building, shopping center, industrial warehouse, or apartment complex. The proceeds from a commercial mortgage are typically used to acquire, refinance, or redevelop commercial property.

Payment protection insurance (PPI), also known as credit insurance, credit protection insurance, or loan repayment insurance, is an insurance product that enables consumers to ensure repayment of credit if the borrower dies, becomes ill, disabled, loses a job, or faces other circumstances that may prevent them from earning income to service the debt. It is not to be confused with income protection insurance, which is not specific to a debt but covers any income. PPI was widely sold by banks and other credit providers as an add-on to the loan or overdraft product.

Loan origination is the process by which a borrower applies for a new loan, and a lender processes that application. Origination generally includes all the steps from taking a loan application up to disbursal of funds. For mortgages, there is a specific mortgage origination process. Loan servicing covers everything after disbursing the funds until the loan is fully paid off. Loan origination is a specialized version of new account opening for financial services organizations. Certain people and organizations specialize in loan origination. Mortgage brokers and other mortgage originator companies serve as a prominent example.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mortgage</span> Loan secured using real estate

A mortgage loan or simply mortgage, in civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any purpose while putting a lien on the property being mortgaged. The loan is "secured" on the borrower's property through a process known as mortgage origination. This means that a legal mechanism is put into place which allows the lender to take possession and sell the secured property to pay off the loan in the event the borrower defaults on the loan or otherwise fails to abide by its terms. The word mortgage is derived from a Law French term used in Britain in the Middle Ages meaning "death pledge" and refers to the pledge ending (dying) when either the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure. A mortgage can also be described as "a borrower giving consideration in the form of a collateral for a benefit (loan)".

Mortgage underwriting is the process a lender uses to determine if the risk of offering a mortgage loan to a particular borrower under certain parameters is acceptable. Most of the risks and terms that underwriters consider fall under the three C's of underwriting: credit, capacity and collateral.

This article provides background information regarding the subprime mortgage crisis. It discusses subprime lending, foreclosures, risk types, and mechanisms through which various entities involved were affected by the crisis.

The interbank lending market is a market in which banks lend funds to one another for a specified term. Most interbank loans are for maturities of one week or less, the majority being overnight. Such loans are made at the interbank rate. A sharp decline in transaction volume in this market was a major contributing factor to the collapse of several financial institutions during the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

The credit channel mechanism of monetary policy describes the theory that a central bank's policy changes affect the amount of credit that banks issue to firms and consumers for purchases, which in turn affects the real economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mortgage industry of the United States</span>

The mortgage industry of the United States is a major financial sector. The federal government created several programs, or government sponsored entities, to foster mortgage lending, construction and encourage home ownership. These programs include the Government National Mortgage Association, the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

References

  1. ↑ "UW | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  2. ↑ "Underwriting: The Poetics of Insurance in America, 1722-1872", by Eric Wertheimer, Stanford University Press, 2006
  3. ↑ Probasco, Jim (2021-11-17). "Underwriting: The risk-assessment process used in everything from IPOs to life insurance". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  4. ↑ Mishkin p.18, p.545
  5. ↑ Mishkin p. 545
  6. 1 2 Mishkin p. 547
  7. ↑ Mishkin p. 545, 546
  8. ↑ Mishkin p. 546
  9. ↑ Adam C. Uzialko (September 11, 2017). "Artificial Insurance? How Machine Learning is Transforming Underwriting". Business News Daily. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Risk Classification (for All Practice Areas)," Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 12, Actuarial Standards Board, December 2005
  11. ↑ "What is PREMIUM LOADING? definition of PREMIUM LOADING (Black's Law Dictionary)". 19 October 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 "Bedbugs, Lava And Bowling Balls: Inside My Homeowners Insurance Policy". NPR.org.
  13. ↑ "Underwriting: The Role of Underwriting in the Reinsurance Industry". FasterCapital. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  14. ↑ "Insurers Using Continuous Underwriting". 19 December 2017.
  15. ↑ "On-demand Insurance".
  16. ↑ McKinsey & Company (March 2017). "Digital disruption in insurance: Cutting through the noise".
  17. ↑ "Lenders scrutinize borrowers," Herald Tribune March 12, 2008
  18. ↑ "Current League Tables". Archived from the original on 2008-11-13.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.