Helia chair Leona Murphy says the lenders’ mortgage insurance provider is better positioned after a challenging 2025.

The loss of the Commonwealth Bank LMI contract “was significant, and I want to be straightforward about that”, she told shareholders at the annual meeting.

Helia’s gross written premium fell 32% in the first quarter, and former CEO Pauline Blight-Johnston departed in June last year. Helia’s board also engaged an independent adviser to review employee share trading before news broke about the loss of the CBA business.

Michael Cant is interim CEO and a search for a new chief is under way.

“I want to speak candidly with you: 2025 brought some challenges for Helia. We lost our largest customer, we faced questions from shareholders about governance and executive remuneration, and we saw the federal government’s expansion of the 5% deposit scheme remove most first home buyers from our addressable market,” Ms Murphy said.

“The past year asked more of this company than most ... The board heard what shareholders said, acted on it, and has put in place a stronger framework.”

The expanded government home guarantee scheme eliminates the need for low-deposit first-time buyers to have LMI. Helia holds about half Australia’s in-force LMI market.

The group has made changes to its disclosure committee and conflicts policy after the employee share trading review “identified opportunities to strengthen governance”.

Ms Murphy said: “We applied downward discretion to executive remuneration outcomes to reflect material events, including the loss of the Commonwealth Bank contract; strengthened minimum shareholding requirements and enhanced associated disclosures; removed the positive risk modifier from the short-term incentive plan; and simplified and improved disclosure of the underlying return on equity measure in the long-term incentive plan.

“I am confident the 2025 remuneration report reflects a framework that is more transparent, more accountable and continues to demonstrate alignment with shareholder interests.”