U.S. Public Finance

Assured Guaranty is the leading provider of municipal bond insurance in the United States.

Our municipal credit enhancement products include:

• Municipal bond insurance policies covering principal and interest, for both new issues and those already trading in the secondary market
• Surety policies that take the place of cash-funded reserves in municipal bond transactions

We guarantee a wide range of municipal bond types supported either by tax revenues or revenues from essential public projects or services. We insure both tax-exempt and taxable municipal bonds.

Our U.S. insurance subsidiary, Assured Guaranty Inc. (AG) employs disciplined underwriting and risk management standards and is dedicated to the highest level of customer service. In addition to the large municipal bond insurance department in AG’s New York headquarters, we maintain a fully staffed western regional office in San Francisco.

AG was previously named Assured Guaranty Corp., and on August 1, 2024, its affiliate Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. (AGM) merged with and into AG, with AG as the surviving company. As a result, AGM-insured municipal bonds became guaranteed obligations of AG, a larger combined company, and remain in full force and effect.

2024 Results

Bond insurance continued to be in strong demand in 2024, with the industry’s annual penetration rate at 8.3% of par issued, remaining at or above 8% for the fourth year in a row. During the fourth quarter of 2024, the insured penetration rate reached 10.1%, which is the second time in five years that a quarterly insured penetration rate exceeded 10%.

Assured Guaranty also achieved a new 14-year high for its annual new issue insured par sold amount, wrapping more than $24 billion during 2024, the most since 2010.  As we maintained our market leadership position, Assured Guaranty insured 58.5% of the total insured par issued in 2024 and 791 new issue deals.

During the year, Assured Guaranty wrapped 48 deals with $100 million or more in insured par. This tied our 2021 all-time high in this category and included six deals with more than $500 million of par, as we helped launch several of the market’s largest and most high-profile transactions. We believe this indicates that institutional investors increasingly place greater value on our guaranty.

Among our larger transactions in 2024, three were honored at the Bond Buyer’s Deal of the Year ceremony. These included the 2024 Deal of the Year, the Brightline Florida Passenger Rail Project issue (which also won the Innovative Financing category), where we insured $1.1 billion of par; the Northeast Regional Deal of the Year, issued for the JFK International Airport New Terminal One project, where we insured a total of $1.6 billion of par ($800 million in December 2023 and in June 2024); and the Health Care Financing winner, the Westchester Medical Center Health Network issue, where we insured $258 million of par. These transactions were noteworthy for their underlying credit profiles, par amounts, and use of insurance to expand and diversify the buyer base and enhance the overall liquidity of the transaction. 

Also in 2024, we saw an increase in the use of our insurance among AA credits (defined as those credits rated in the double-A category by S&P and/or Moody’s on an uninsured basis). Year-over-year, we insured 27% more of these policies, for 38% more par, reflecting a total of 103 policies, and approximately $4.4 billion of insured par.

2023 Results

Assured Guaranty specifically, and the bond insurance industry in general, saw increased demand in 2023. The insured market par penetration rose to 8.8% in 2023 from 8.0% in 2022, the highest annual level since 2008.  Assured Guaranty was the main driver of the growth in the bond insurance industry, accounting for over $2.5 billion of the $3.0 billion (or 84%) of the year-over-year new issue par increase. While demand remains strong across our target rating spectrum, the rising growth has been notably observed in the A rated space, where insurance was used on more than 30% of 2023 municipal par sold – up from around 20% in the years prior to 2020 .We believe the growth in recent years reflects both investors’ appreciation of the benefits that bond insurance provides, especially during volatile economic or uncertain market conditions, and issuers’ recognition of its cost-effectiveness and capacity to increase investor demand and market access.

In 2023, we insured 61% of the insured market, representing $19.5 billion of new issue par, the highest in the industry by $7 billion, and 15% higher than last year. We have exceeded $19 billion of primary par in three of the last four years. We believe this heightened demand has proven our product’s value across a wide range of transaction sectors, rating levels and deal sizes.  We wrapped 645 new issues in 2023 with sizes as small as $1.0 million and as large as over $1.0 billion.

Assured Guaranty ended the year with a terrific fourth quarter, insuring $5.4 billion of new issue par, 32% higher than in the same period last year. 

Two statistics help illustrate the value we believe the market assigns to our insurance.  The first is the number of AA transactions we insured, which reflects the positive market perception of our value proposition.  In 2023, we insured 81 AA transactions with a total par of $3.3 billion, 71 of which were insured in the primary market. (Double-A credits are defined as those with underlying ratings in the AA/Aa category by S&P and/or Moody’s.) 

The second is the number of transactions on which we insured $100 million or more, which we believe signals strong institutional demand for our product.  In 2023, we insured 37 such large transactions with a total par of $10.4 billion.  The four largest were $1.1 billion of insurance on Dormitory Authority of the State of New York bonds, $800 million on John F. Kennedy International Airport bonds, $756 million on Houston, Texas Airport System bonds, and $732 million on Power Authority of the State of New York green bonds.  Additionally, we participated in three other such large transactions in Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania that were the winners of The Bond Buyer Deals of the Year award in their respective categories.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any forward-looking statements made in this press release reflect Assured Guaranty’s current views with respect to future events and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, difficulties executing Assured Guaranty’s business strategy; the demand for Assured Guaranty’s financial guarantees; actions that the rating agencies may take with respect to Assured Guaranty’s financial strength ratings; adverse developments in Assured Guaranty’s guaranteed portfolio; other risks and uncertainties that have not been identified at this time; management’s response to these factors; and other risk factors identified in Assured Guaranty’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are made as of February 24, 2025. Assured Guaranty undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.