Arch Mortgage Insurance has completed a capital relief transaction on a €3bn subset of a residential mortgage loan portfolio of ING Bank's subsidiary ING DiBa.

Arch Insurance

Image: Arch Mortgage Insurance completes capital relief transaction with ING. Photo: Courtesy of Joykid/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Arch Mortgage Insurance said deal, which is the first of its kind in the European mortgage market, represents as a new tool for financial institutions in managing their regulatory capital.

Arch Mortgage Insurance is a Dublin, Ireland-based subsidiary of Arch Capital Group. It offers credit risk management and capital optimization solutions to its clients across Europe. Arch is authorized and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Arch International Mortgage Group president and CEO Beau Franklin said: “Arch is delighted to complete a transaction that supports mortgage lending in Germany.

“Arch is committed to bringing innovative products to market and taking a leadership role in providing capital relief solutions on residential mortgage loans globally.”

In June, Arch Capital, the parent company of Arch Mortgage Insurance, announced its plans to expand its underwriting operations in Ireland to continue its operations across the European Union (EU) once Brexit takes place.

Following discussions with the Central Bank of Ireland, Arch has applied for regulatory approval to continue its underwriting operations of UK insurer, Arch Insurance Company (Europe) Limited, and its Gibraltar insurer, Alwyn Insurance Company, from Ireland.

Those operations will be carried out from one of its existing Ireland-based insurance platform with supplemental business licenses acquired to match those used in the current UK and Gibraltar operations.

Arch stated that it has selected Ireland, based on several crucial goals such as to maintain continuity of covering its existing policyholders, maintaining its access to the UK and EU markets, reducing policyholder disruption and the group’s EU insurance operations and to build on an established regulatory supervisory relationship.

Through Syndicate 2012, Arch will be involved in the Lloyd’s Market and will serve its Lloyd’s clients by establishing Lloyd’s Insurance Company in Brussels.

Clients and business partners should be able to continue to work with their existing point of contact with regard to the detail of managing the transition to the new arrangements.