Credit spreads tightened in December and finished the year at their narrowest levels since July 2008, having tightened by approximately 15 bps over the course of 2017. At year-end, the spread between the 20-year “A” rated index and the “AAA” was 48 bps.
See “-Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a definition of the financial measures that were not determined in accordance with GAAP and a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, if available. See “-Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for additional details.
Includes capital relief triple-X excess of loss life reinsurance transactions written in 2017 and 2016.
On January 10, 2017, AGC completed its acquisition of MBIA UK. On July 1, 2016, AGC acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of CIFGH, and on April 1, 2015 AGC completed the acquisition of Radian Asset. These acquisitions added a total of $29.8 billion in net par, and contributed total net income per share of $1.04 in 2017, $2.41 in 2016 and $2.46 in 2015 upon acquisition. At acquisition, these companies contributed shareholders' equity of $84 million in 2017, $296 million in 2016 and $159 million in 2015, and non-GAAP adjusted book value of $322 million in 2017, $512 million in 2016 and $570 million in 2015. See Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 2, Acquisitions, for additional information.
On February 2, 2018, AGC entered into an agreement with SGI to reinsure, generally on a 100% quota share basis, substantially all of SGI’s insured portfolio. The transaction also includes the commutation of a book of business ceded to SGI by AGM. The transactions reinsured and commuted will total approximately $14.5 billion. As consideration for the transaction, at closing, SGI will pay $360 million and assign installment premiums estimated to total $55 million in present value to Assured Guaranty. The reinsured portfolio consists predominantly of public finance and infrastructure obligations that meet AGC’s new business underwriting criteria. Additionally, on behalf of SGI, AGC will provide certain administrative services on the assumed portfolio, including surveillance, risk management, and claims processing. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2018.
Business Elsewhere in the EU. As of December 31, 2017, approximately $7.5 billion of the Company’s insured net par is to risks located in EU and EEA countries other than the U.K. Currently, EU directives allow AGE to conduct business in other EU or EEA states based on its PRA permissions. This is sometimes called “passporting”. Depending on the terms of Brexit, and of any transitional arrangements, AGE may, once Brexit is implemented, lose the ability to insure new transactions, or service existing contracts in non-U.K., EU and EEA countries without obtaining additional licenses, which may require a presence in another EU country. While pertinent laws and regulations have yet to be adopted or passed, the Company does not believe Brexit will adversely affect its surveillance and loss mitigation activities with respect to existing insured transactions in non-U.K. EU and EEA countries, except to the extent Brexit inhibits the issuance of new guaranties in distressed situations in non-U.K. EU or EEA countries. As noted above, most of the new transactions insured by AGE since 2008 have been in the U.K.
Loss and LAE in 2015 comprised mainly changes in loss estimates on Puerto Rico exposures, second lien U.S. RMBS transactions and Triple-X life insurance transactions. Some of the increases were partially offset by improvements in first lien U.S. RMBS and student loan transactions.
The tables below show the Company's ten largest U.S. public finance, U.S. structured finance and non-U.S. exposures by revenue source, excluding related authorities and public corporations, as of December 31, 2017:
The tables below provide information on the risk ratings and certain other risk characteristics of the Company’s financial guaranty insurance, FG VIE and credit derivative U.S. RMBS exposures. As of December 31, 2017, U.S. RMBS exposures represent 2% of the total net par outstanding, and BIG U.S. RMBS represent 23% of total BIG net par outstanding. See Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 5, Expected Loss to be Paid, for a discussion of expected losses to be paid on U.S. RMBS exposures.
The Company anticipates that for the next twelve months, amounts paid by AGL’s direct and indirect insurance company subsidiaries as dividends or other distributions will be a major source of its liquidity. The insurance company subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends depends upon their financial condition, results of operations, cash requirements, other potential uses for such funds, and compliance with rating agency requirements, and is also subject to restrictions contained in the insurance laws and related regulations of their states of domicile. Dividend restrictions applicable to AGC, AGM, MAC and to AG Re are described in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 11, Insurance Company Regulatory Requirements.
Government-agency obligations were approximately 39% of mortgage backed securities as of December 31, 2017 and 42% as of December 31, 2016, based on fair value.
In May and July 2017 the Oversight Board filed petitions under Title III of PROMESA with the Federal District Court of Puerto Rico for the Commonwealth, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (COFINA), PRHTA, and Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Title III of PROMESA provides for a process analogous to a voluntary bankruptcy process under chapter 9 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Bankruptcy Code).
Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York was selected by Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court to preside over any legal proceedings under PROMESA. Judge Swain has selected a team of five federal judges to act as mediators for certain issues and disputes.
The Company believes that a number of the actions taken by the Commonwealth, the Oversight Board and others with respect to obligations the Company insures are illegal or unconstitutional or both, and has taken legal action, and may take additional legal action in the future, to enforce its rights with respect to these matters. See “Puerto Rico Recovery Litigation” below.
Litigation and mediation related to the Commonwealth’s debt have been delayed by Hurricane Maria. The final form and timing of responses to Puerto Rico’s financial distress and the devastation of Hurricane Maria eventually taken by the federal government or implemented under the auspices of PROMESA and the Oversight Board or otherwise, and the final impact, after resolution of legal challenges, of any such responses on obligations insured by the Company, are uncertain.
Net of ceded paid losses, whether or not such amounts have been settled with reinsurers. Ceded paid losses are typically settled 45 days after the end of the reporting period. Such amounts are recorded in reinsurance recoverable on paid losses included in other assets. The Company paid $24 million and $16 million in LAE for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
The Company had been enforcing claims for breaches of R&W regarding the characteristics of the loans included in the collateral pools. The Company calculates R&W recoveries and payables to include in its cash flow projections based on its agreements with R&W providers.
Total expected loss to be paid on all first lien U.S. RMBS was $123 million and $119 million as of December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively. The Company used a similar approach to establish its pessimistic and optimistic scenarios as of December 31, 2017 as it used as of December 31, 2016, increasing and decreasing the periods of stress from those used in the base case.
For the base case scenario, the CDR (the plateau CDR) was held constant for six months. Once the plateau period has ended, the CDR is assumed to gradually trend down in uniform increments to its final long-term steady state CDR. (The long-term steady state CDR is calculated as the constant CDR that would have yielded the amount of losses originally expected at underwriting.) In the base case scenario, the time over which the CDR trends down to its final CDR is 28 months. Therefore, the total stress period for second lien transactions is 34 months, comprising six months of delinquent data and 28 months of decrease to the steady state CDR, the same as of December 31, 2016.
The rate at which the principal amount of loans is prepaid may impact both the amount of losses projected as well as the amount of excess spread. In the base case, an average CPR (based on experience of the past year) is assumed to continue until the end of the plateau before gradually increasing to the final CPR over the same period the CDR decreases. The final CPR is assumed to be 15% for second lien transactions (in the base case), which is lower than the historical average but reflects the Company’s continued uncertainty about the projected performance of the borrowers in these transactions. For transactions
where the initial CPR is higher than the final CPR, the initial CPR is held constant and the final CPR is not used. This pattern is generally consistent with how the Company modeled the CPR as of December 31, 2016. To the extent that prepayments differ from projected levels it could materially change the Company’s projected excess spread and losses.
As of December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, other invested assets include investments carried and measured at fair value on a recurring basis of $48 million and $52 million, respectively, and include primarily an investment in the global property catastrophe risk market and an investment in a fund that invests primarily in senior loans and bonds. Fair values for the majority of these investments are based on their respective net asset value (NAV) per share or equivalent.
Net loss on consolidation and deconsolidation was de minimis in 2017 and 2016. Net loss on consolidation was $26 million in 2015 and was recorded in "fair value gains (losses) on FG VIEs" in the consolidated statement of operations.
The change in the instrument-specific credit risk of the FG VIEs’ assets held as of December 31, 2017 that was recorded in the consolidated statements of operations for 2017 were gains of $35 million. The change in the instrument-specific credit risk of the FG VIEs’ assets held as of December 31, 2016 that was recorded in the consolidated statements of operations for 2016 were gains of $55 million. The change in the instrument-specific credit risk of the FG VIEs’ assets for 2015 were gains of $90 million. To calculate the instrument specific credit risk, the changes in the fair value of the FG VIE assets are allocated between changes that are due to the instrument specific credit risk and changes due to other factors, including interest rates. The instrument specific credit risk amount is determined by using expected contractual cash flows versus current expected cash flows discounted at original contractual rate. The net present value is calculated by discounting the expected cash flows of the underlying security, at the relevant effective interest rate.
The following tables present the fair value of the Company’s available-for-sale portfolio of obligations of state and political subdivisions as of December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 by state.
No material investments of the Company were non-income producing for years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.
insured credit derivatives are accounted for as insurance contracts rather than as derivative contracts measured at fair value;
The Company remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the rates at which they are expected to reverse in the future, which is generally 21%. However, the Company is still analyzing certain aspects of the Tax Act and refining its calculations, which could potentially affect the measurement of these balances or potentially give rise to new deferred tax amounts. The provisional amount recorded related to the remeasurement of its deferred tax balance was $37 million.
Positive ceded premiums written were due to commutations and changes in expected debt service schedules.
On October 25, 2013, AGL, as borrower, and AGUS, as lender, entered into a revolving credit facility pursuant to which AGL may, from time to time, borrow for general corporate purposes. Under the credit facility, AGUS committed to lend a principal amount not exceeding $225 million in the aggregate. Such commitment terminates on October 25, 2018 (the loan termination date). The unpaid principal amount of each loan will bear interest at a fixed rate equal to 100% of the then applicable Federal short-term or mid-term interest rate, as the case may be, as determined under Section 1274(d) of the Code, and interest on all loans will be computed for the actual number of days elapsed on the basis of a year consisting of 360 days. Accrued interest on all loans will be paid on the last day of each June and December, beginning on December 31, 2013, and at maturity. AGL must repay the then unpaid principal amounts of the loans by the third anniversary of the loan termination date. No amounts are currently outstanding under the credit facility.