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Merrill may write down $5.4 billion in Q2: Lehman By Elinor Comlay and Tenzin Pema Fri Jun 27, 9:45 AM ET Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N) will likely incur $5.4 billion of write-downs in the second quarter, mainly from its exposure to bond insurers, said an analyst at Lehman Brothers. The report, coupled with a discussion of the write-downs on CNBC, prompted Merrill stock to fall 2.5 percent to $32.23 and highlighted concerns the broker may need to raise capital. Lehman analyst Roger Freeman raised his write-down view by $3 billion for Merrill, making his estimate the highest among Wall...

Bond insurers want $125bn of cover wiped out By Aline van Duyn in New York Published: June 22 2008 23:30 | Last updated: June 22 2008 23:30 Bond insurers such as Ambac, MBIA and FGIC are talking to banks about wiping out $125bn of insurance on risky debt securities in what could be the only way to limit the financial damage surrounding the bond insurers.

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.

AP Ackman: Bond insurers need another downgrade Wednesday June 11, 4:30 pm ET By Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer Activist hedge fund manager Ackman says more downgrades are needed for MBIA, Ambac NEW YORK (AP) -- William Ackman, the billionaire activist hedge fund manager, said Wednesday that the recent downgrades of bond insurers and other financials might not have gone far enough. The founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, who is open about shorting bond insurers such as MBIA Inc., said rating agencies need to dig deeper into the companies to get a better idea of what is on...

Stocks rally on word of Ambac bailout By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer Sat Feb 23, 4:35 AM ET Wall Street staged a dramatic turnaround Friday, shooting higher in the last half-hour of trading after word that a bailout plan for troubled bond insurer Ambac Financial could be announced next week. The major indexes ended a week of choppy trading mixed. CNBC reported shortly before the closing bell that a plan to help shore up the finances of Ambac Financial Group Inc. could be announced Monday or Tuesday. Ambac shares jumped on the report and finished up $1.48, or 16...

The monoline clock is ticking By Francesco Guerrera, Aline van Duyn and Ben White Thu Feb 21, 1:20 PM ET The poker game whose outcome could break the $2,400bn bond insurance industry and saddle Wall Street with billions of dollars in losses began in a drab, windowless room in downtown New York at 11 am on January 23. The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused. Gathered around the large brown wooden table, under the watchful gaze of past insurance watchdogs, whose austere pictures hang in a neat row...

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...

Investor Warren Buffett offers 800 bln dlr backup to troubled bond insurers Tue Feb 12, 11:03 AM ET Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Tuesday said he offered to reinsure 800 billion dollars in municipal bonds backed by three insurers hard hit by the US mortgage and credit crunch. Buffett discussed his offer to bond insurers Ambac Financial Group, MBIA Inc. and Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. during a telephone interview with the CNBC business television network. Buffett said he had sent that offer to the three bond insurers last week, and that he was giving them 30 days to find a...

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...

Monolines downgrades could hit banks By Aline van Duyn and Michael Mackenzie in New York and Paul J Davies in London Published: February 5 2008 19:32 | Last updated: February 6 2008 03:12 Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency that is considering downgrading the top triple-A credit ratings of bond insurers, warned that the move could be damaging for banks with direct exposure to the insurers. The forecast came as bond insurers including Ambac, FGIC, MBIA and SCA continue frantic efforts to raise capital to avoid downgrades. Banks with exposure to the insurers are in talks about providing capital....

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...