MBIA, a financial guarantor and provider of specialized financial services, has announced that it is withdrawing from the Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers.
Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers (AFGI) is the trade association of the insurers and reinsurers of municipal bonds and asset-backed securities.
MBIA has been associated with AFGI since the trade association’s formation in 1986. At various times during its 22-year affiliation, MBIA executives have served as AFGI chair and volunteered on its different committees.
MBIA said that it withdrew from the association because it no longer shares AFGI’s view as to the directions that the bond insurance industry should take going forward.
Jay Brown, chairman and CEO of MBIA, said: We disagree with AFGI’s positions on the appropriateness of monoline financial guarantors insuring credit default swaps and the ability of US financial guarantors to reinsure US domestic financial guarantee insurance transactions with foreign affiliates without paying US corporate tax rates.
Now it is up to us to shape our future in a way that we believe is most responsive to the markets, our policyholders and our owners, and we must do so without the constraints of participation in an industry association that does not always share our views.