Standard & Poor's Ratings Services corrected its ratings today on 1,096 issues (about 12,000 maturities) guaranteed by bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. to 'A plus' from 'A', saying they had been "inadvertently lowered.
The New York-based rating service said the ratings were dropped as a result of the Wednesday's downgrade of the Ambac Assurance Corp rating, which was lowered to 'A' From 'AA' with an "Outlook Negative."
S&P said then it was cutting the rating due to residential mortgage sector exposures that have caused losses greater than those of Ambac's competitors.
The rating firm said under its criteria, the issue rating on an insured bond reflects the higher of the rating on the bond insurer (monoline) and Standard & Poor's underlying rating (SPUR). Since the 12,000 maturities transactions have SPURs which are higher than that of the insurer, the firm said it has corrected the ratings to reflect the underlying rating.
A list of the maturities whose ratings were corrected is posted on www.spviews.com. Go to the left navigation bar and click on "Deals Affected"
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