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’Will CIFG’s real owners please stand up?
What’s this? Ratings action on a monoline that wasn’t a downgrade? Hard to believe, but true – CIFG, the French bond insurer jointly owned by Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Epargne, has achieved what no other bond insurer has since this crisis kicked off:
S&P downgrades CIFG
The bloodletting continues apace.
CIFG Ratings Cut To ‘B’ From ‘A-’; On CreditWatch Developing
NEW YORK Aug. 22, 2008–Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today it lowered its financial strength ratings on CIFG Guaranty,
Les menaces monolines
Unfortunate news for Belgian-French bank Dexia today as monoline FSA draws down on a $5bn credit line.
Such is the power of Ackman.
But there’s monoline pain elsewhere in francophone Europe. Take Credit Agricole.
Bond insurers’ ratings slashed – again
It wouldn’t be a Friday afternoon unless the ratings agencies came out with a spate of downgrades, and today was no exception as S&P continued its bonfire of the bond insurers:
First up, XL Capital and XL Financial:
CIFG bond insurer cut to junk rating
CIFG, a small and privately owned bond insurer, had its credit ratings downgraded to junk status on concerns over the impact of mounting writedowns related to its exposure to complex bonds backed by risky mortgages.
CIFG: “The value within”
More like the value without. Monoline CIFG likes its sloganeering. Long or Short Capital wryly takes note of another one:
CIFG: THE NEW GENERATION IN TRIPLE-A FINANCIAL GUARANTY
You don’t say.
Settlement risk: ISDA’s CDS monoline lists
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has made some lists – specifically lists of all the CDS contracts out there which reference a monoline. Simply, all the “insurance” contracts on say,
Monolines and rating agencies: The war of words continues…
We know there’s little love lost between the big US bond insurers and credit rating agencies but recent developments as the monolines struggle to keep their top ratings have raised their increasingly bitter tussle to a new level – not least as some bond insurers,
Monoline CIFG downgraded
Monoline woes not over: Moody’s have downgraded CIFG Guaranty and family, cutting the bond insurer’s critical Aaa rating by four notches:
New York, March 06, 2008 — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded to A1,
Natixis tumbles on more credit pain
There’s another spot of French banking difficulty. And this time it can’t be laid at the door of a lone trader.
Shares in Natixis, the investment bank created by mutuals Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne in December 2006,
S&P warns banks on monolines
Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency that is considering downgrading the triple-A credit ratings of bond insurers, warned Tuesday that the move could be damaging for banks with direct exposure to the insurers.
AAA moment of truth for the monolines
Specialist bond insurance companies such as MBIA and Ambac face a moment of reckoning in the coming weeks, reports the FT on Monday.
Moody’s and Fitch ratings agencies will shortly complete their reviews of how such companies are rated,
Will PMI, Blackstone and Cypress bail out FGIC?
After Thursday’s announcement that the parent banks of monoline insurer CIFG were going to be extending $1.5bn to the company to avoid a rating downgrade, pressure is mounting on the owners of another big privately owned monoline,
Banks throw lifeline to bond insurer CIFG
Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire, two French mutual banks, have pledged to inject $1.5bn into CIFG, a bond insurer, after it was warned by credit rating agencies it risked losing its vital AAA rating if it did not increase its capital cushion.