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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...

The death throes of the bond insurers Google Chart of ABK share price: Ambac’s share price hit an all-time low on Wednesday, falling below $1 a share for the first time in the company’s history as a public company. Why? A rather savage downgrade from S&P, which cut the bond insurer’s financial strength rating to A from AA, The outlook on the ratings is negative, meaning further cuts are likely in the medium term. S&P’s rationale (emphasis FT Alphaville’s): The rating action on Ambac reflects our view that the company’s exposures in the U.S. residential mortgage sector and particularly the...

S&P downgrades Ambac again Shares slump, but rebound in late trading on CDO commutation By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last update: 7:01 p.m. EST Nov. 19, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that it downgraded Ambac Financial and the company's main bond insurance unit because the rating agency expects more losses from guarantees of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. S&P downgraded the senior debt of Ambac Financial (ABK AMBAC Inc) to BBB from A. It also cut Ambac Assurance Corp., the bond insurance subsidiary, to A from AA. The outlook is negative. "The company's exposures in...

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...

Patriots' affiliate sues bond insurer to block fees Securities trouble boosted costs of financing stadium NPS, a Patriots' affiliate, issued bonds to finance the new stadium, but market woes drove up the costs. By Ross Kerber Globe Staff / July 16, 2008 An affiliate of the New England Patriots football team is playing defense on a new field: the market for auction-rate securities. The Foxborough team affiliate has sued Ambac Assurance Corp., the big bond insurer, in a dispute similar to a raft of others in which institutional borrowers found that policies they took out didn't guarantee low interest rates...

Merrill Lynch sues bond insurer over deal terminations Stephanie Baum 20 Mar 2008 Merrill Lynch has filed a lawsuit over a bond insurer in the latest sign of tensions in the structured credit markets. Merrill contends that XL Capital Assurance, a monoline insurer owned by Security Capital Assurance, improperly terminated seven credit default swap contracts insuring collateralized debt obligations, according to its suit filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of Manhattan. Credit default swaps are contracts that offer insurance against default. Collateralized debt obligations pool together bonds or asset-backed securities and slice them up into tranches...

Security Capital Assurance Halts Taking on New Business Amid $1.2 Billion Loss in 4th Quarter March 13, 2008 - 6:13 p.m. NEW YORK (AP) - Troubled bond insurer Security Capital Assurance Ltd. on Thursday posted a massive fourth-quarter loss and said it will stop writing new policies in an effort to preserve capital. The Bermuda-based company reported it lost $1.2 billion, or $18.67 per share, in the last three months of the year as the value of securities backed by home loans the company insured deteriorated rapidly. During the same period in 2006, SCA posted a profit of $35.8 million,...

Regulator in crisis talks to save bond insurers By Aline van Duyn in New York Published: February 15 2008 22:00 | Last updated: February 15 2008 22:00 New York’s insurance regulator will hold talks this weekend with sovereign wealth funds, Warren Buffett and other investors in an urgent effort to stabilise credit ratings on $220bn of municipal bonds guaranteed by the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, the troubled insurer. FGIC, which lost its triple-A credit rating this week, has asked the New York insurance regulator to allow it to split its municipal bond business from its riskier activities, which involve guaranteeing...

Monolines given five days to find funds By Aline Van Duyn in Washington and Michael Mackenzie in New York Published: February 14 2008 14:54 | Last updated: February 14 2008 21:47 Eliot Spitzer, New York governor, on Thursday gave bond insurers three to five business days to find fresh capital, or face a potential break-up by state regulators who want to safeguard the municipal bond markets. Mr Spitzer’s warning came shortly before Moody’s Investors Service highlighted the concerns about the bond insurers by withdrawing its triple-A credit rating for privately held Financial Guaranty Insurance Company. However, the sting of Moody’s...

February 7, 2008 Fears for bond insurance market put Federal Reserve on red alert Tom Bawden and Suzzy Jagger in New York Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, yesterday acknowledged that the bank is worried about the impact of an impending implosion of bond insurers on the US economy. In a letter published yesterday, Mr Bernanke said that the Fed is “closely monitoring” problems with US bond insurers: “Given the adverse effects that problems of financial guarantors can have on financial markets and the economy, we are closely monitoring developments,” Mr Bernanke said in the letter to Paul...

Banks link to solve bond insurers crisis By David Wighton, Aline van Duyn and Henny Sender in New York and Peter Thal Larsen in London Published: February 1 2008 19:53 | Last updated: February 1 2008 20:05 Leading US and European banks are joining forces to find solutions to the crisis among US bond insurers, whose problems threaten to exacerbate the impact of the credit squeeze. One group of banks, including Citigroup and Barclays, is examining options for supporting Ambac Financial, one of the leading insurers. Separate teams are working with other bond insurers, according to people close to the...

Bond insurers spark new credit concerns By Aline van Duyn and Saskia Scholtes in New York and Stacy-Marie Ishmael in London Published: January 17 2008 19:09 | Last updated: January 17 2008 23:23 Fears that the credit crunch might be entering a traumatic new phase grew on Thursday as investors lost confidence in the insurers that guarantee payments on billions of dollars in bonds. Shares in Ambac Financial and MBIA, the worldÂ’s biggest bond insurers, fell 52 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively, as MoodyÂ’s InvestorsÂ’ Service raised the possibility that both might lose the triple-A credit rating on...