Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. Announces Settlement With New York Attorney General
May 23 2006 - 2:28PM
PR Newswire (US)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., May 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fidelity
National Title Group, Inc. (NYSE:FNT), one of the nation's largest
title insurance companies and a majority-owned, publicly traded
subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), today
announced that it has reached a settlement with the office of the
Attorney General of the state of New York, ending nearly two years
of industry-wide scrutiny. FNT has agreed to a rate reduction of 15
percent on all purchase transactions in New York involving
liability levels up to $1 million. Additionally, the New York State
Insurance Department will hold an industry- wide rate hearing
before the end of 2006 to determine future title insurance premium
rates, which could result in a future increase, reduction or no
change in title insurance premiums in the state of New York.
Finally, FNT agreed to a $2 million penalty that ends the
investigation of the New York Attorney General. "We are pleased
that the New York Attorney General found no pattern or practice of
any wrongdoing on the part of our company," said Peter T. Sadowski,
FNT Executive Vice President and FNF General Counsel. "This lengthy
investigation is now behind us. Measured against hundreds of
thousands of transactions, the Attorney General's investigators
identified only isolated errors or questionable industry practices.
We cooperated fully with the Attorney General's office and are
pleased with the satisfactory resolution of the investigation."
Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. is one of the nation's largest
title insurance companies. The Company's title insurance
underwriters -- Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Ticor
Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title -- issue approximately
31 percent of all title insurance policies in the United States.
Through its direct operations and agencies, the Company provides
title insurance in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam,
Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. In 2005,
FNT also acquired Service Link, a leading provider of title and
closing services to major financial institutions and lenders,
including six of the top 10 lending institutions in the United
States ranked by loan origination volume. More information about
Fidelity National Title Group can be found at http://www.fntg.com/
. FNT is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial
Inc., number 248 on the Fortune 500 and a provider of products and
outsourced services and solutions to a variety of industries. More
information about FNF can be found at http://www.fnf.com/ . This
press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a
number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not
historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and
expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as
assumptions made by, and information currently available to,
management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to
future economic performance and are not statements of fact, actual
results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no
obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise. The risks
and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to
include, but are not limited to: changes in general economic,
business and political conditions, including changes in the
financial markets; adverse changes in the level of real estate
activity, which may be caused by, among other things, high or
increasing interest rates, a limited supply of mortgage funding or
a weak U.S. economy; compliance with extensive regulations;
regulatory investigations of the title insurance industry; our
business concentration in the State of California, the source of
over 20% of our title insurance premiums; our dependence on
distributions from our title insurance underwriters as our main
source of cash flow; competition from other title insurance
companies; FNF's need to maintain more than 80% ownership of our
common stock for various tax purposes; and other risks detailed in
the "Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information," "Risk
Factors" and other sections of the Company's Form 10-K and other
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. DATASOURCE:
Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. CONTACT: Daniel Kennedy Murphy,
Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations, Fidelity
National Financial, Inc., +1-904-854-8120, or Web site:
http://www.fntg.com/ http://www.fnf.com/
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