Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) helps other companies improve the credit rating of their loan assets by insuring them against default. They have three main lines of business: mortgage insurance, financial guaranty, and financial services. For the three months ended 31 March 2008, Radian Group Inc.'s revenues totaled $964.4M, up from $341.5M the same time previous year. Net income increased 72% to $195.6M. Revenues reflect an increase in premiums earned and change in fair value of derivatives and income from investments. ^[1]

However, Radian's revenues fell from $1.3B to $201M from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007 due to the credit crisis. During that period the mortgage insurance segment had an usual volume of claims since delinquent loans were defaulting due to the subprime lending crisis, and several monoline bond insurers (including Radian) have been hit hard. At the end of year 2007, Radian Group had a net loss of $1.8 billion,^[2] and Radian Group stock has fallen from a 52-week high of 55.96 to 1.04 per share, a loss of 98%.

The subprime mortgage meltdown created adverse conditions across the whole financial services industry, including major failures by companies like Countrywide Financial (CFC), bought out by Bank of America (BAC) and Bear Stearns Companies (BSC), which was bought out by J P Morgan Chase (JPM). Accordinglly, in early 2007, Radian Group and MGIC proposed a merger, but due to adverse industry conditions the merger was cancelled in the Fall of 2007.

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