Bond insurance

The insurer seeks at least $720 million from Wall Street firms that underwrote Puerto Rico bonds issued from 2001 to 2007.

Assured Guaranty, the largest municipal bond insurer, is buying BlueMountain Capital Management LLC for $160 million.

The two active municipal bond insurers are currently outpacing their output year-over-year in terms of industry penetration rate, par amount insured and number of transactions. Assured Guaranty and Build America Mutual have combined for $9.69 billion of insured volume spanning 798 transactions and 5.8% penetration rate so far in 2019, up from $9.06 billion in 625 deals and 5.5% insured rate the two achieved during the first six months of 2018.

Build America Mutual announced that it has been accepted as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, becoming the first municipal bond insurer to join the system.

Robert Moore, a credit analyst professional, with over 35 years of experience in public finance, passed away recently.

Municipal bond analyst Natalie Cohen succeeds former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who now joins the bond insurer’s Strategic Advisory Committee.

Municipal bond insurers are running close to last year's clip through the first three months of 2019, as the two active insurers wrapped $3.61 billion in 288 transactions. That compares with $3.61 billion 257 deals during the same period last year. The insurance penetration rate dipped to 4.8% from 5.9% at the end of the first quarter of last year.

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.