We also compete with various federal and state governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, principally the FHA, and more recently, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”). Beginning in 2008, the FHA, which historically had not been a significant competitor, substantially increased its market share of the insured mortgage market, and in recent years, the FHA  has become the predominant insurer of low down payment mortgages, with a market share as high as 85.4% in both the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. Since 2010, the private mortgage insurance industry steadily has recaptured market share from the FHA, primarily due to increases in the financial strength of certain private mortgage insurers, the development of new products and marketing ef forts directed at competing with the FHA, as well as increases in the FHA ’s pricing and, in some cases, decreases in the pricing of private mortgage insurance. In January 2013, the FHA  announced that it would be increasing its annual insurance premium by ten basis points on new mortgages ef fective in April 2013. This represents the third FHA premium increase in less than one year. For the third quarter of 2012, the FHA ’s market share was reduced to 41.7% of the insured market. Despite our progress in competing with and regaining market share from the FHA, recent legislative actions and proposed regulations and guidelines that may be more favorable to the FHA  compared to private mortgage insurers could strengthen the FHA ’s competitive position. See “Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors— Our mortgage insurance business faces intense competition.” 

