Bond insurance

Municipal bond insurance may have finished 2018 down 18.1% from where it was the year before, but it outpaced the 23.5% volume dip the overall industry saw due to changes in tax legislation.

The latest reversal of Puerto Rico's Title III bankruptcy court again draws attention to PROMESA's failure to meet its goals of restoring fiscal responsibility and capital market access for Puerto Rico.

While the municipal bond insurers suffered from the curtailment of issuance under newly effective U.S. tax laws, the insurance penetration rate ticked higher.

Puerto Rico’s per capita debt load is far lower than that of the mainland U.S. states.

Larson joins the bond insurer after 35 years in the muni industry, including 20 years at Goldman Sachs.

Municipal bond pros say the industry has adapted to an insurance industry one-tenth its former size. Part 3 of The Bond Buyer's series on the decade after the financial crisis.

The tax overhaul and rising rates started to bolster demand, partly offsetting the decline in issuance.

What began as trouble in the housing and mortgage markets shook the whole world in 2008, including a municipal bond industry that had to learn to live without bond insurance, auction-rate debt and some big investment banks.

Build America Mutual announced a new program to identify green bonds sold by U.S. municipal bond issuers for infrastructure projects that provide clear environmental benefits.

The par amount of insured debt decreased in the first half of 2017 but the percentage of bonds issued that carry insurance climbed.

Bond insurers and legal counsel battled for share of a smaller market as Assured Guaranty and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP stayed atop the rankings.

The district priced debt Thursday at narrower spreads than it faced in a November sale.

Build America Mutual's Les Richmond said that state and local governments might want to consider their disclosure obligations in the light of the more robust risk assessments they'll soon begin getting from their actuaries.

The top players maintained their positions atop the league tables, building their shares of a shrinking market.

Build America Mutual, the only mutual insurer of U.S. municipal bonds, has a collateralized reinsurance agreement with Fidus Re Ltd. that will also add to its internal growth.

A federal judge dismissed a suit over Buena Vista’s bonds, but an appeal will put the city's moral obligation pledge on trial again.

The insurer wants more time to develop land it received as part of the city's bankruptcy exit.

Assured is pursuing a strategy of investment beyond its core financial guaranty business, to diversify revenue sources.

Assured said its fourth-quarter profit fell on lower earnings from bond refunding and a one-time effect of the new tax law, even as the company's share value surged to record levels.

Even though interest rates have not risen as fast as the bond insurance industry hoped for, and 2017 saw the contraction of an active insurer, the bond insurance wrap remains relatively stable in terms of market share.