Mortgage insurer Essent Group has acquired $495.9 million of reinsurance coverage from the capital markets for mortgage insurance policies it has written.

The insurance-linked securities transaction was done through Radnor Re 2020-1 Ltd, a newly formed Bermudian special purpose insurer.

This was the fourth time fast-growing Bermudian-based Essent has tapped the capital markets and the largest deal so far.

The fully collateralised excess of loss reinsurance coverage boosts Essent’s capacity for writing mortgage insurance, while protecting its own balance sheet.

Radnor Re 2020-1 Ltd has funded its reinsurance obligations through the issuance of six classes of mortgage insurance-linked notes, with ten-year legal maturities, to eligible third-party capital markets investors in an unregistered private offering.