We generally cannot cancel or elect not to renew the mortgage insurance or financial guaranty insurance coverage we  provide, and because we generally fix premium rates for the life of a policy when issued, we cannot adjust renewal premiums or  otherwise adjust premiums during the life of a policy . Therefore, even if the risk underlying many of the mortgage or financial  guaranty products we have insured develops more adversely than we anticipated, including as a result of the ongoing weakness  in many parts of the economy and housing market, and the premiums our customers are currently paying for similar coverage  on new business from us and others has increased, we generally cannot increase the premium rates on this in-force business, or  cancel coverage or elect not to renew coverage, to mitigate the ef fects of such adverse developments. Our premiums earned and  the associated investment income on those premiums may ultimately prove to be inadequate to compensate for the losses that  we may incur with respect to those insured risks.  See  “We have incurred significant losses on our insured products as a result of the economic downturn that began in  2007 and we expect to incur additional losses in the future.”  We provide contract underwriting services on a limited basis for certain of our mortgage lender customers, including on  loans for which we are not providing mortgage insurance. For substantially all of the existing loans that were originated through  our contract underwriting services, we have agreed that if we make a material error in providing these services and the error  leads to a default, the mortgage lender may , subject to certain conditions, require us to purchase the loan, issue mortgage  insurance on the loan or indemnify the lender against future loss associated with the loan.  Accordingly, we have assumed some  credit risk and interest-rate risk in connection with providing these services.  We also face regulatory risk in providing these  services. See “ Legislation and regulatory changes and interpretations could harm our mortgage insurance business .”  The credit ratings of Radian Group and the insurance financial strength ratings assigned to our insurance subsidiaries  have been downgraded multiple times since 2008, remain below investment grade and may be downgraded again in the future.  Although S&P raised the credit rating of Radian Group to CCC+ from CCC- on October 15, 2012, due to a change in ratings  methodology, this rating reflects an outlook of Negative and reflects S&P’ s views regarding risk of significant adverse reserve  development, the trajectory of operating performance and the impact of losses. On  April 17, 2012, Moody’s downgraded  Radian Group’s credit rating to Caa2 from Caa1, reflecting Moody’ s views regarding Radian Group’s liquidity position, the  ongoing stress at our mortgage insurance subsidiaries and Radian Group’ s debt maturities.  The current financial strength ratings for our principal insurance subsidiaries are: 74 Moody’s S&P Radian Guaranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ba3 B- Radian Asset Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . Ba1 B+ Our current credit ratings and the insurance financial strength ratings assigned to our mortgage insurance or financial  guaranty subsidiaries could weaken our competitive position. We face risks associated with our contract underwriting business. Our delegated underwriting program may subject our mortgage insurance business to unanticipated claims. In our mortgage insurance business, we enter into agreements with our mortgage lender customers that commit us to  insure loans made by them using pre-established underwriting guidelines. Once we accept a lender into our delegated  underwriting program, we generally insure a loan originated by that lender even if the lender has not followed our specified  underwriting guidelines. Under this program, a lender could commit us to insure a material number of loans with unacceptable  risk profiles before we discover the problem and terminate that lender ’s delegated underwriting authority or pursue other rights  that may be available to us, such as our rights to rescind coverage or deny claims.