An Attempt At A New Monoline Thread

[Little Professor]

Some updates:

June 23rd: MBIA and AMBAC are stripped of their ratings by Moody's

June 26th: MBIA and AMBAC are stripped of their ratings by Fitch. The two companies asked Fitch to withdraw the ratings after the agency stripped the insurers of their all-important "AAA" rating. They stopped providing Fitch with information that was not publicly available.

July 2nd: AMBAC share trading is supended

Ambac, the world’s second-biggest bond insurer, stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange in a “subpenny halt'’ after its share price fell as low as $1.04.

Ambac declined 3 cents, or 2.5 per cent, to $1.15 in over- the-counter trading at 1:39 p.m. in New York.

Ambac, which was stripped of all three of its AAA rankings from the largest credit-rating companies, has tumbled 99 percent in the past year.

Edited July 2, 2008 by Little Professor

[Little Professor]

Moody's cuts Ambac's rating to BAA1 - the same rating it gave Bear Stearns just prior to its collapse

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/11/05...-ambac-to-baa1/

[Little Professor]

MBIA gets junked

MBIA INSURANCE CORP. CUT TO BBB+ FROM AA BY S&P

This is big news. New round of pwnage to ensue.

[Optobear]

Moody's cuts Ambac's rating to BAA1 - the same rating it gave Bear Stearns just prior to its collapse

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/11/05...-ambac-to-baa1/

Time for this thread to come back from the dead

http://www.anotherfp.com/newsite/story.php?id=1072

AMBAC cut to Ba3.

Lower than Bear Stearns had before they collapsed...

With AMBAC's rating reduced their whole business model falters because they can't attach their high rating to packages of crappy bonds, and so there is no point in anyone paying AMBAC for that service. The whole thing just slides down the toilet, and in doing so turns all those highly rated bonds sitting on corporate balance sheets into toxic slime. Good job mark to market has been suspended!

http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=77902

[SaintJay]

ANOTHER $1.6BN IN WRITEOFFS AT AMBAC, SHARES DIVE

New York-based bond insurer Ambac has reported another $1.6bn in losses from derivatives after credit quality worsened at second-lien and “Alt-A†mortgage-backed securities. The additional deterioration brings statutory writedowns on a credit derivatives portfolio of Ambac Assurance to $4.9bn. In a separate move, Ambac said that it would stop paying interest on some subordinated debt and dividends so that it can conserve cash. Ambac’s shares fell by nearly 25% to $0.72 in after-hours trading. The company’s plan to create a new “clean†municipal bond insurer called Everspan had to be shelved last month after it failed to raise sufficient capital from investors. Essentially the bond insurer has not been able to write any new business because of its mortgage-related losses. Ambac said that it did not intend to issue an update on its financial position before it reports its H1 results on August 5.

source - Insurance Day (no link - paid subscribers only)

[SaintJay]

downgraded.... again....

Rating agency Moody’s... has downgraded Ambac Assurance Corp and Ambac Assurance UK to Caa2 from Ba3, and lowered the rating of senior unsecured credit at Ambac Financial to Ca from Caa1. The ratings outlook for Ambac is developing, while for Ambac Financial it is negative. The move follows Ambac’s recent announcement of a large loss reserve increase and credit impairment estimate for Q2 2009.

Source - Insurance Day (no link)