Correction-Fitch Downgrades Most Assured Guaranty-Insured Muni Bonds to 'AA'; Rating Watch Evolving.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- (This corrects a release issued May 5, 2009 to reflect in the third paragraph that nine ratings maintained at 'AA' have been placed on Rating Watch Evolving.) In conjunction with Fitch's downgrade Downgrade A negative change in the rating of a security. Notes: For example, an analyst may downgrade a stock from strong buy to buy, or a bond rating agency may downgrade a bond from AAA to AA. of Assured Guaranty As a verb, to agree to be responsible for the payment of another's debt or the performance of another's duty, liability, or obligation if that person does not perform as he or she is legally obligated to do; to assume the responsibility of a guarantor; to warrant. Corp.'s insurer financial strength (IFS) rating to 'AA' from 'AAA' on May 4, 2009, Fitch downgrades to 'AA' from 'AAA' the long-term ratings of Assured Guaranty-insured municipal bonds with no Fitch unenhanced ratings, as well as those Assured Guaranty-insured municipal bonds with unenhanced ratings of below 'AA'. These ratings are placed on Rating Watch Evolving, corresponding to the Rating Watch status of Assured Guaranty's IFS rating. For Assured Guaranty-insured municipal bonds with unenhanced long-term ratings of 'AA+' or 'AA', the ratings are downgraded from 'AAA' to the level of their unenhanced ratings. Assured Guaranty-insured municipal bonds with unenhanced long-term ratings of 'AAA' are not affected by today's actions unless the 'AAA' unenhanced ratings had been assigned a Negative Rating Outlook or had been on Rating Watch Negative. In addition to the above rating actions, two ratings are changed to 'AA' from 'BBB' and nine are maintained at 'AA' and placed on Rating Watch Evolving due to data discrepancies on insured bonds Insured bond A municipal bond backed both by the credit of the municipal issuer and by commercial insurance policies. insured bond A municipal debt obligation for which interest and principal are guaranteed by a private insurance company. wrapped by Assured Guaranty secondary insurance policies that have been corrected and are now reflected on Fitch's web site. See Fitch research, 'Fitch downgrades to 'AA' Assured Guaranty Insured U.S. Municipal Bonds', available at www.fitchratings.com for a listing of the above ratings changes, by CUSIP number CUSIP Number An identification number assigned to all stocks and registered bonds. The Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures (CUSIP) oversees the entire CUSIP system. Notes: This system is used in the U.S. and Canada. . Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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