Fitch Ratings said it is withdrawing its ratings on two mortgage insurers after it said it would no longer have access to substantive, nonpublic information about the companies.

The rating service said it will withdraw all of its outstanding ratings on MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc. and all related entities. It will list ratings of primary obligors for bonds where Fitch maintains coverage.

The action was taken after management at the two insurers decided to no longer provide “substantive, nonpublic portfolio information” for Fitch's capital analysis model and discontinued discussions with Fitch analysts, the rating service said.

Both companies also told Fitch they no longer wanted the firm to rate them.

Fitch said it has to rely on public information and needs to shift its analysis under these new circumstances.

The rating service said it would consider reinstating coverage and assigning new ratings based only on public information “if there is continuing investor interest.” Fitch added that it may continue to offer commentary and research on the companies' developing credit events in the interim.

Just last week Ambac requested Fitch to stop rating the company.

Both MBIA and Ambac fell into trouble over losses they suffered in the face of the collapse of the subprime loan market. Since the beginning of the year, both have managed to raise additional capital but suffered downgrades from both Moody's and Standard & Poor's.

Both say they have adequate capital to cover potential losses. The insurers have also been critical of Fitch's method of determining ratings, believing the model the rating service uses does not accurately reflect the companies' true financial standing.

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Fitch Withdraws Ratings On MBIA And Ambac

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