Bond insurers Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. (AGM) and Municipal
Assurance Corp. (MAC), subsidiaries of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)
(together with its subsidiaries, Assured Guaranty), are providing on
Bloomberg terminals indicative pricing for secondary market insurance on
municipal bond issues they have pre-qualified. The current list of
pre-qualified municipal bonds comprises approximately 8,000 issuers and
45,000 CUSIPs.
“We are pleased to have worked with Bloomberg to add this valuable
feature for its subscribers. Traders, institutional investors and retail
trading desks that are considering adding bond insurance to municipal
bonds in the secondary market may now find indicative insurance
availability and pricing information for AGM or MAC insurance on the
Bloomberg All Quotes page. ‘ALLQ’ is the same page used for bond pricing
information, trade history, valuations, and offering levels,” said Bill
Hogan, Senior Managing Director, Public Finance. “Adding municipal bond
insurance in the secondary market may enhance a bond’s market liquidity:
approximately $500 million of bonds guaranteed by Assured Guaranty
companies are traded daily.”
AGM and MAC municipal bond insurance policies unconditionally and
irrevocably guarantee payment of a bond’s principal and interest when
due. Assured Guaranty companies currently protect municipal bonds with
an outstanding gross par amount of almost $300 billion. In addition,
Assured Guaranty secondary market insurance may allow an investor to
meet portfolio rating requirements; provide significant downgrade
protection; and reduce the capital requirement for a regulated holder of
the bond.
AGM and MAC are rated AA+ (stable outlook) by Kroll Bond Rating Agency
and AA (stable outlook) by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. AGM is
also rated A2 (stable outlook) by Moody’s Investors Service.
To view AGM and MAC insurance pricing, users simply load a nine-digit
municipal CUSIP and navigate to the All Quotes page with the command
ALLQ (e.g., {123456789 Muni ALLQ }). Indicative prices for AGM and
MAC to insure $1 million in par amount appear in the Ask Price column,
expressed as the price per bond. The amount of insurance potentially
available is also displayed if the user activates the Show Bid/Ask Sizes
column in the ALLQ Settings menu.
The list of eligible CUSIPs and the related indicative price and
capacity information are updated for each business day. To initiate a
purchase of insurance, users may contact Assured Guaranty’s secondary
market desk over the Bloomberg network by sending messages to Richard
Cassata, rmc176@bloomberg.net,
Leonard Lasek, llasek@bloomberg.net,
or Dana Villanova, dvillanova2@bloomberg.net.
Users may also telephone (212) 408-6067.
If no insurance pricing is shown on Bloomberg for a municipal bond on
which a user wishes to obtain bond insurance, users are encouraged to
use the contact information above to request approval and a quote.
Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a publicly traded Bermuda-based holding
company. Its operating subsidiaries provide credit enhancement products
to the U.S. and international public finance, infrastructure and
structured finance markets. More information on Assured Guaranty Ltd.
and its subsidiaries can be found at AssuredGuaranty.com
and MACmunibonds.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Any forward-looking statements made in this press release reflect
Assured Guaranty’s current views with respect to future events and are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from
those set forth in these statements, including those identified in
Assured Guaranty’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which are made as of February 16, 2016.
Assured Guaranty undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, except as required by law.