Genworth Responds to Moody's Extension of Review for Potential Downgrade of Holding Company

RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) today issued the following statement in response to Moody's Investors Service Inc.'s ("Moody's") extension of their review for potential downgrade of the company's senior unsecured debt rating.  Moody's also extended the rating review of the U.S. mortgage insurance business.  

Genworth continues to work with Moody's on their rating evaluation of the holding company and the U.S. mortgage insurance business.  The company is pursuing various plans to manage the U.S. mortgage insurance business and its linkages and dependencies to the holding company.  As stated before, the company does not believe run-off, a sale or spin-off of that business are the most beneficial options for shareholders at this time.    

"We are acting with focus and urgency and believe that the actions we are pursuing will improve returns, strengthen the company's financial position, support a stronger credit profile and drive greater value for our shareholders," said Martin P. Klein, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

About Genworth Financial 
Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a leading Fortune 500 insurance holding company dedicated to helping people secure their financial lives, families and futures.  Genworth has leadership positions in offerings that assist consumers in protecting themselves, investing for the future and planning for retirement -- including life insurance, long term care insurance, financial protection coverages, and independent advisor-based wealth management -- and mortgage insurance that helps consumers achieve home ownership while assisting lenders in managing their risk and capital.

Genworth has approximately 6,500 employees and operates through three divisions: Insurance and Wealth Management, which includes U.S. Life Insurance, Wealth Management and International Protection segments; Global Mortgage Insurance, which includes U.S. and International Mortgage Insurance segments; and the Corporate and Runoff division. Its products and services are offered through financial intermediaries, advisors, independent distributors and sales specialists. Genworth Financial, Inc., which traces its roots back to 1871, became a public company in 2004 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. For more information, visit genworth.com. From time to time, Genworth Financial, Inc. releases important information via postings on its corporate website. Accordingly, investors and other interested parties are encouraged to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings. Enrollment information is found under the "Investors" section of genworth.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "will" or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for the company's future business and financial performance. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially due to global political, economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors and risks, including the following:

• Risks relating to the company's businesses, including downturns and volatility in global economies and equity and credit markets; downgrades or potential downgrades in the company's financial strength or credit ratings; interest rate fluctuations and levels; adverse capital and credit market conditions; the expiration of the company's credit facilities; the valuation of fixed maturity, equity and trading securities; defaults, downgrades or other events impacting the value of the company's fixed maturity securities portfolio; defaults on the company's commercial mortgage loans or the mortgage loans underlying the company's investments in commercial mortgage-backed securities and volatility in performance; goodwill impairments; defaults by counterparties to reinsurance arrangements or derivative instruments; an adverse change in risk based capital and other regulatory requirements; insufficiency of reserves; legal constraints on dividend distributions by the company's subsidiaries; competition; availability, affordability and adequacy of reinsurance; loss of key distribution partners; regulatory restrictions on the company's operations and changes in applicable laws and regulations; legal or regulatory investigations or actions; the failure of or any compromise of the security of the company's computer systems; the occurrence of natural or man-made disasters or a pandemic; the effect of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; changes in the accounting standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or other standard-setting bodies; impairments of or valuation allowances against the company's deferred tax assets; changes in expected morbidity and mortality rate; accelerated amortization of deferred acquisition costs and present value of future profits; reputational risks as a result of rate increases on certain in force long term care insurance products; medical advances, such as genetic research and diagnostic imaging, and related legislation; unexpected changes in persistency rates; ability to continue to implement actions to mitigate the impact of statutory reserve requirements; the failure of demand for long term care insurance to increase; political and economic instability or changes in government policies; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; unexpected changes in unemployment rates; unexpected increases in mortgage insurance default rates or severity of defaults; the significant portion of high loan to value insured international mortgage loans which generally result in more and larger claims than lower loan-to-value ratios; competition with government owned and government sponsored enterprises offering mortgage insurance; changes in international regulations reducing demand for mortgage insurance; increases in mortgage insurance default rates; failure to meet, or have waived to the extent needed, the minimum statutory capital requirements and hazardous financial condition standards; uncertain results of continued investigations of insured U.S. mortgage loans; possible rescissions of coverage and the results of objections to the company's rescissions; the extent to which loan modifications and other similar programs may provide benefits to the company; unexpected changes in unemployment and underemployment rates in the United States; further deterioration in economic conditions or a further decline in home prices in the United States; problems associated with foreclosure process defects in the United States that may defer claim payments; changes to the role or structure of Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); competition with government owned and government sponsored enterprises offering U.S. mortgage insurance; changes in regulations that affect the U.S. mortgage insurance business; the influence of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and a small number of large mortgage lenders and investors; decreases in the volume of high loan to value mortgage originations or increases in mortgage insurance cancellations in the United States; increases in the use of alternatives to private mortgage insurance in the United States and reductions by lenders in the level of coverage they select; the impact of the use of reinsurance with reinsurance companies affiliated with U.S. mortgage lending customers; legal actions under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974; and potential liabilities in connection with the company's U.S. contract underwriting services;
• Other risks, including the risk that adverse market or other conditions might further delay or impede the planned IPO of the company's mortgage insurance business in Australia; the possibility that in certain circumstances the company will be obligated to make payments to General Electric Company (GE) under the tax matters agreement with GE even if the company's corresponding tax savings are never realized and payments could be accelerated in the event of certain changes in control; and provisions of the company's certificate of incorporation and bylaws and the tax matters agreement with GE may discourage takeover attempts and business combinations that stockholders might consider in their best interests; and
• Risks relating to the company's common stock, including the suspension of dividends and stock price fluctuations.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE Genworth Financial, Inc.