California Regulators Approve Reduction in Title Insurance Cost.

The California Land Title Association announced that state insurance regulators had approved new pricing for title insurance products that will cut the premiums of a policy to as low as $275 for a refinance or $85 for home equity line transactions.

So far, the regulators have approved the rate reduction requests from First American Title back in November 2002 and more recently from Fidelity National Financial, Irvine, Calif., and its subsidiary, Chicago Title. Other underwriters are expected to follow.

California is the battleground for Radian Lien Protection, an alternative to title insurance that is in large part aimed at these types of transactions. Radian Group says RLP can save the state's consumers approximately $273 million this year. However, an administrative law judge has upheld a ruling that bars Radian from offering RLP in that state. The judge did not buy Radian's argument that RLP is mortgage insurance pool product.

The judge said RLP is title insurance and Radian is not licensed to offer title insurance. Under California law, if Radian offers a banned product anywhere in the U.S., it cannot do any business in California.

A spokesman for CLTA said the move was not so much a reaction to Radian. Rather, "title companies are reacting to the same pressures and same opportunity that Radian is."

Lenders, especially those not charging points and fees to the customer, are looking at having to pay less of the settlement services costs themselves.

CLTA executive vice president Larry Green said, "Our member ...