CEO Jay Brown and Chuck Chaplin, president and chief financial officer, speaking during an analyst's conference call today, say that the quarter did not produce anything of special note.

"We see declining loss payments and declining volatility in our RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) related exposures, and there is an ever-increasing recognition of the liability of sponsors who placed ineligible mortgages and securitizations that we wrap," says Chaplin.

The company is embroiled in a bitter dispute with a number of banks over the placement of mortgages that MBIA contends should never have been insured by the company. The company has sued the banks for return of payments made under the policies, which could result in hundreds of millions of dollars returned to MBIA.

At the same time, the banks are challenging the split of the company into two divisions: National Public Finance Guarantee Corp., responsible for coverage of public finance bonds; and MBIA Insurance Corp., responsible for covering the structured finance instruments.

The banks argue, under an Article 78 appeal of the New York Insurance Department's order, that the split endangers the ability of MBIA to pay future claims.

Chaplin says that the banks' argument is not valid and that in the two years that the arrangement has been in effect, the company has not failed to pay a claim. He says there is no reason to believe that the company should not be able to continue to do so in the future.