Definition of "underwriter" []

• One that underwrites, especially: (noun)
• A person or firm engaged in the insurance business. (noun)
• An insurance agent who assesses the risk of enrolling an applicant for coverage or a policy. (noun)
• One that guarantees the purchase of a full issue of stocks or bonds. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The underwriter is some strange company that sounds like a credit union."
• "If they had (although I doubt that many, if any, refinancing homeowners do), they could simply continue the house payments on the new mortgage, stiff the old lender, and upon the latter's start of foreclosure proceedings, the homeowners could file an insurance claim on their updated title policy and let the title underwriter straighten out the problem (that's why you pay for title insurance)."
• "In the WSJ's January 14, 2008 article on Magnetar's strategy, Calyon was identified as the underwriter of a synthetic CDO called Cetus."