Private mortgage insurance is a type of insurance that helps protect the mortgage servicer against losses due to foreclosure. This protection is provided by private mortgage insurance companies and allows servicers to accept lower down payments than would normally be allowed.

Private mortgage insurance also enables mortgage servicers to grant loans that would otherwise be considered too risky to be purchased by third party investors like the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC). The ability to sell loans to these investors is critical to maintaining mortgage market liquidity, which in turn, allows companies to continue originating new loans.