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Judge Eileen Bransten granted a motion to allow the insurer, MBIA, to use statistical sampling, turning down the objections by Bank of America. Bank of America had told investors that it intended to fight repurchase requests—also known as put-backs—on a “loan-by-loan basis.” That process would have required MBIA and others seeking to force Bank of America to buy back loans it pooled into mortgage securities to proceed one loan at a time, a costly and time-consuming process. MBIA has proposed that for each of the 15 securitizations—each of which contains thousands of home loans—it is challenging, it will sample 400...

Nov. 9, 2009, 6:20 p.m. EST MBIA loses $728 million as slowdown hits bond insurer Bond insurer pays $638.4 mln in third-quarter net claims on mortgage securities By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- MBIA Inc. reported a quarterly loss of nearly $730 million late Monday as the bond insurer continued to struggle in the face of an economic slowdown and depressed housing market. The company said it paid $638.4 million in net claims during the third quarter, mainly from guarantees it sold on residential mortgage securities. MBIA shares fell 15% to $4.06 in after-hours trading. The stock had...

MBIA sues Merrill over CDO losses Thu Apr 30, 5:16 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) – MBIA Inc (MBI.N), the world's largest bond insurer, sued Merrill Lynch & Co on Thursday seeking damages for losses from complex debt securities it insured for the bank. The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks to void certain credit default swaps and related insurance contracts that MBIA, through a special purpose vehicle, wrote on the securities held by Merrill. The insurer wrote $5.7 billion in guarantees on these securities, which were packages of mortgages known as collateralized debt obligations...

Bond insurers MBIA, Ambac post bigger losses; shares dive By MarketWatch Last update: 9:54 a.m. EST Nov. 5, 2008 BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- A pair of bond insurers saw their stocks plunge Wednesday morning after they reported wider quarterly losses as the companies continue to get buffeted by their exposure to complex credit derivatives linked to the sagging housing market. Ambac Financial Group Inc. (ABK AMBAC Inc) said its third-quarter loss widened to $2.43 billion, or $8.45 a share, from a $360.6 million, or $3.53 a share, loss. Chart of ABK The company blamed the bigger loss on hits from credit...

Ambac, MBIA fall as Moody's warns it may cut again Ratings agency says losses on subprime mortgage securities to be much worse By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last update: 5:55 p.m. EDT Sept. 19, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ambac Financial and MBIA Inc. shares fell on Friday after Moody's Investors Service warned it may downgrade the beleaguered bond insurers again. Despite short selling being banned on Ambac starting Friday, shares of the two companies fell 42% and 8% respectively during afternoon trading. Moody's put the ratings of Ambac's and MBIA's main bond insurance units on review for a possible downgrade....

Fitch Places Military Housing Transactions on Rating Watch Negative NEW YORK, Jun 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----Fitch is placing the following military housing transaction ratings, with surety bonds from MBIA and AMBAC, on Rating Watch Negative: --Pacific Beacon LLC (CA: 23.08, -0.01, -0.04%) Military Housing (San Diego) 2006 Series A Class I 'AAA', II 'AA' & III 'A'; MBIA surety bond; --Ohana Military Communities, LLC (HI: 22.58, +1.18, +5.51%) Military Housing Revenue Bonds (Marine Corps Hawaii Housing Privatization Project) 2007 Series A Class I 'AA'& II 'A'; MBIA surety bond; --Ohana Military Communities, LLC (HI: 22.58, +1.18, +5.51%) Military Housing...

The threat of up to $10bn (£5bn) in further banking writedowns on the back of serious downgrades to the world's two largest bond insurers sent shares in New York tumbling to levels not seen since March. Credit ratings agency Moody's decision to remove MBIA and Ambac's prized Aaa ratings saw the shares values of the two "monoline" insurers fall by 13pc and 6pc respectively. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 200 points in late trading, falling well below the psychologically important 12,000 level and down 10.6 pc year-to-date. The broader S&P500 index also hit a three-month...

Bond Insurers Inflict Further Pain on the Market By Liz Rappaport and Serena Ng The long-anticipated credit-rating downgrades of the nation's big bond insurers are pressuring financial markets, perhaps worse than expected. On Thursday afternoon, MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., which together guarantee more than $1 trillion in debt, lost their triple-A financial-strength ratings from Moody's Investors Service. Moody's, which lowered MBIA's rating by five notches and Ambac's by three, was the last of the three major rating firms to cut those ratings. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's did so earlier this year.

Fitch cuts financial strength rating of bond insurer MBIA to "AA" from "AAA" Fri Apr 4, 4:33 PM By Stephen Bernard, The Associated Press NEW YORK - Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings said Friday it cut the critical financial strength rating of MBIA Inc. because the bond insurer does not have enough spare capital to warrant a top-notch rating. Fitch cut the rating to "AA" from "AAA." The downgrade could make it difficult for MBIA to book new business, as bond insurers typically need the top-tier rating to attract customers. MBIA's rating was placed on negative outlook, which is a...

On Thursday, shares of the nation’s biggest insurer of financial risk, MBIA, fell 26 percent... The move came a day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded another bond insurer and assigned a negative outlook to four companies, including MBIA. MBIA’s disclosure, which came in a data table posted on its Web site late Wednesday without any explanation, highlights the crisis in confidence that has racked the credit market. Investors, specialists say, are scared of what they do not know and no longer trust what they are told by the professionals who are supposed to know. * * * MBIA, whose name...