Build America Mutual Assurance Company (BAM) today announced its first insured transaction in the State of California — $11,965,000 of General Obligation Bonds, Election of 2012, Series A, for the Washington Unified School District in Fresno, California. BAM announced last week that it was licensed to operate in California.
“We are pleased to have done this transaction so quickly after being licensed in California and look forward to providing insurance for many California bond issues in the months and years ahead,” said Sheelagh Flanagan, BAM’s Head of Public Finance, West. BAM serves California issuers out of its Western Regional Office in San Francisco.
Proceeds of the transaction will be used to finance the construction, renovation modernization and equipping of school facilities. The underwriter on the transaction is PiperJaffray and the financial advisor is Fieldman, Rolapp & Associates.
About BAM
Domiciled in New York, BAM is a mutual monoline insurer of municipal bonds, exclusively. As a mutual bond insurance company, BAM is operated for the benefit of its members — the cities, states and other municipal entities — that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is rated AA/Stable by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and is sponsored by the National League of Cities.
For further information, please contact:
Betsy Castenir, Head of Corporate Communications 212-257-6148 or 917-940-2462

Build America Mutual Assurance Company (BAM or the Company) today announced that since receiving its initial license in the State of New York, the Company has secured licenses in an additional 11 states and expects approval in a number of others before year-end. BAM is now licensed in Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Robert P. Cochran, Chairman of BAM, said: “The states that we have been licensed in represent a significant portion of new municipal offerings nationwide and provide BAM with the opportunity to begin to ramp up our underwriting.
“Our goal, of course, is to be licensed nationwide, and with our acceptance in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) coordinated licensing application review program (REACAP), we expect continued approval of licenses.”
BAM has filed applications in all states and the District of Columbia. While pursuing these licenses, BAM is permitted to write business in many states that have enacted statutes that, subject to fulfilling certain conditions, may permit an insurer to write business prior to being licensed. These states include Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
“We are pleased with the progress we have made since our launch earlier this year and believe there is significant demand for BAM’s financial guaranty, particularly among small to medium size issuers of general obligation and essential public purpose revenue bonds, Mr. Cochran added. “The progress we are making on the licensing front should enhance the growth of the company in 2013.”
Domiciled in New York, BAM is a mutual, monoline bond insurer of municipal bonds exclusively. The first mutual bond insurance company, BAM is operated for the benefit of its issuer members –the cities, states and other municipal entities—that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is rated AA/Stable by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and is sponsored by the National League of Cities.
For more information, contact:
Betsy Castenir
Head of Corporate Communications 212-257-6148 bcastenir@buildamerica.com
Richard G. Holzinger
Head of Investor Relations 212-235-2518 rholzinger@buildamerica.com

Build America Mutual Assurance Company (BAM) announced today that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has approved its license to operate in the State of Florida. With the Florida approval, BAM is now licensed in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
Robert P. Cochran, Chairman of BAM, said: “We look forward to working with Florida municipalities and their financial advisors to help them achieve increased market access and lower interest rates on their municipal bonds through our guaranty. As mutual members of BAM, Florida municipalities will also have the right to receive future dividends from BAM and to a premium credit in the event of a refunding of an insured issue.
“We are also pleased to note that, with the addition of our Florida license, we are very close to completion of our nationwide insurance licensing project.”
Florida League of Cities Director of Insurance & Financial Services Jeannie Garner said: “Access to a new mutual bond insurer, such as Build America Mutual, provides a valuable tool to assist local governments in Florida by lowering borrowing costs. Lower costs will, in turn, help critical capital projects move forward more quickly and ultimately speed up the path to economic recovery.”
ABOUT BAM
Domiciled in New York, BAM is a mutual insurer of municipal bonds, exclusively. As a mutual bond insurance company, BAM is operated for the benefit of its members—the cities, states and other municipal entities—that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is rated AA/Stable by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P), the highest S&P rating in our industry, and is sponsored by the National League of Cities.
For additional information, please contact:
Betsy Castenir
Head of Corporate Communications Build America Mutual 212-257-6148
C: 917-940-2462

Build America Mutual today announced four new hires and internal moves to enhance the underwriting and new business efforts of its growing municipal bond insurance business, according to Seán W. McCarthy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BAM.
Bryan R. Baebler joins BAM as Vice President, Capital Markets with responsibility for BAM’s competitive and negotiated business. He joins from Barclays, where he was a Vice President on the Municipal Primary Syndicate Desk.
Moving from Assured Guaranty to BAM are: Brian Siper, who joins the Legal Department as Associate Counsel, and Andrew Bevan, who joins as a Vice President in the Public Finance, East Group. Mr. Siper was formerly Counsel at Assured Guaranty, and Mr. Bevan was formerly a Managing Director in Assured’s Sydney, Australia office.
Kathryn E. Byrnes also joins BAM as Vice President in the Corporate Communications Department. She joins from Marsh, Inc., where she was a Vice President and Communications Manager.
Additionally, Elizabeth (Betsy) Hill has become BAM’s Deputy Credit Officer. Formerly she was the Company’s Head of Surveillance. Filling her previous role is Michael Weinstein, who was Vice President of Surveillance.
“These additions and promotions will significantly add to BAM’s new business effort and operational strengths as we continue to expand our municipal financial guaranty business,” said Mr. McCarthy. BAM currently has approximately 60 employees at its New York headquarters and San Francisco offices.
About BAM
Domiciled in New York, BAM is the first mutual monoline insurer of municipal bonds, exclusively. As a mutual bond insurance company, BAM is operated for the benefit of its members—the cities, states and other municipal entities—that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is rated AA/Stable by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and is sponsored by the National League of Cities. BAM’s website is buildamerica.com.
For further information, please contact:
Betsy Castenir, Head of Corporate Communications 212.257.6148
bcastenir@buildamerica.com

Build America Mutual Assurance Company (BAM or the Company), the first mutual municipal bond insurer, today announced that it has joined the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) as an Associate Member.
“We’re pleased to join SIFMA,” said Seán W. McCarthy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BAM. “We believe SIFMA plays an important role in the municipal market we serve and that our membership will allow us to contribute to its efforts to support a strong municipal industry.”
Launched in July 2012, BAM’s mission is to deliver substantial interest cost savings for issuers of municipal bonds and durable protection against loss for municipal bondholders. Owned by its policyholders—the cities, states and other municipal entities that use its guaranty—BAM’s mutual structure and business plan provide extremely strong capital and claims-paying resources designed to maintain the highest available ratings and strong investor confidence.
BAM is chartered to insure municipal bonds, exclusively, and strives to provide the municipal industry with the highest level of transparency in its operations and the bonds it insures. Regarding the latter, BAM posts Obligor Disclosure Briefs (ODBs) on every bond it insures on its website www.buildamerica.com. Accessible by CUSIP, obligor, state or sector, the ODBs assist broker-dealers in meeting disclosure rules for secondary market issues.
About BAM
Domiciled in New York, BAM is a mutual monoline insurer of primary and secondary municipal bonds, exclusively. BAM is rated AA/Stable by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and is sponsored by the National League of Cities.
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About SIFMA
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) brings together the shared interests of hundreds of securities firms, banks and asset managers. SIFMA’s mission is to support a strong financial industry, investor opportunity, capital formation, job creation and economic growth, while building trust and confidence in the financial markets. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org.
For further information, please contact:
Betsy Castenir
Head of Corporate Communications 212-257-6148
C: 917-940-2462 bcastenir@buildamerica.com

Federal, state, and local government reactions to the spread of the novel coronavirus and a surge in COVID-19 cases are leading to a wave of questions about the fundamental credit quality of U.S. municipal bond issuers, given the potential for extended disruptions to economic activity.

To help investors understand BAM’s financial strength and approach to credit selection in the municipal market, we’ve assembled the following answers to frequently asked questions.

S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its AA rating and stable outlook for Build America Mutual, the largest municipal-only bond insurer, recognizing BAM’s “excellent capital and earnings” and other key strengths in assigning BAM the highest rating S&P maintains for any active bond insurer. The rating was affirmed following the adoption of new ratings methodologies for bond insurance that align the sector with S&P’s ratings for other insurers.