Of course we don't have Fidelity's side of the story on this, but of the big four underwriters, I'm not surprised that it is Fidelity that would sign a deal with Freehold to lock up "market share" that others won't touch.  The underwriters aren't very transparent, so it is sometimes hard to tell, but Fidelity appears to be the most aggressive of the underwriters as far as taking risks. 

-- We just saw Fidelity release a statement last week saying that it was business as usual on foreclosure transactions for them-- the only company to make such a statement.  I took that as a sales pitch to lenders plagued by these bad affidavits and mortgage assignments.  Old Republic, on the other hand, took a much more cautious approach.

-- Fidelity was the company that immediately went aggressively after the carcass of LandAmerica when it went bust, and snapped up the title operations of LandAm. 

-- Fidelity is not alone in aggressively outsourcing backoffice tasks offshore, but it appears to be doubling down on the strategy with the recent report from India that it was doubling its staff there with about 1000 more title searchers and other back office personnel.

Fidelity's executives have a very lutcrative bonus structure attached to meeting various financial benchmarks, more reminiscent of an investment bank than a typical title underwriter, which likely plays into their decision-making.