In banking, underwriting is the detailed credit analysis preceding the granting of a loan, based on credit information furnished by the borrower, such as employment history, salary, and financial statements; publicly available information, such as the borrower's credit history, which is detailed in a credit report; and the lender's evaluation of the borrower's credit needs and ability to pay. Underwriting can also refer to the purchase of corporate bonds, commercial paper, Government securities, municipal general obligation bonds by a commercial bank or dealer bank for its own account, or for resale to investors. Bank underwriting of corporate securities is carried out through separate holding company affiliates, called Securities affiliates, or Section 20 affiliates.
Insurance underwriting
Underwriting may also refer to insurance; insurance underwriters figure out how risky it is to insure people and businesses. They also decide how much coverage they should receive and how much they should pay for it. Underwriting involves measuring risk exposure and determining the premium with which to insure that risk.
Each insurance company uses its own set of underwriting guidelines in order to determine whether or not the company should accept a proposal. In life insurance this decision process sometimes requires that applicants provide further medical evidence. The underwriters can decide to make a counteroffer in which the premiums have been loaded, or in which various exclusions have been stipulated, which restrict the circumstances under which a claim would be paid. Some companies use automated underwriting systems to encode these rules, and reduce the amount of manual work in processing proposals; some such systems are available from reinsurers.
A leading underwriter is insurance broker Lloyd's of London.
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Each insurance company uses its own set of underwriting guidelines in order to determine whether or not the company should accept a proposal. The underwriters can decide to make a counteroffer in which the premiums have been loaded, or in which various exclusions have been stipulated, which restrict the circumstances under which a claim would be paid.