Fitch Withdraws Ratings on MBIA, Ambac

Fitch Ratings has announced the withdrawal of all its ratings on two bond insurers, MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., and their related entities. Fitch said it will also withdraw all ratings based on insurance policies from the companies' insurance subsidiaries, MBIA Insurance Corp. and Ambac Assurance Corp. The announcement followed decisions by MBIA and Ambac "to cease providing substantive nonpublic portfolio information used in Fitch's capital analysis model, to discontinue previous full interactive dialogue with Fitch analysts, and to request withdrawal of Fitch's ratings," the rating agency said. Fitch said the timing was also prompted by many "key credit issues," negative rating actions by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Moody's Investors Service that affect the companies' business prospects, and the companies' "reactive strategic and capital management planning." Fitch said it will consider reinstating coverage and assigning new ratings based only on public information if there is sufficient investor interest.