Build America Mutual, the only mutual insurer of U.S. municipal bonds, today announced that Grant G. Dewey, a former managing director at Citi’s municipal bond division, will join the company as Head of Municipal Capital Markets. Mr. Dewey has more than 30 years’ experience in municipal institutional sales, serving a wide range of investors including commercial bank portfolios, mutual funds, credit hedge funds, and investment advisors, and will focus on expanding investor demand for BAM’s guaranty.

Build America Mutual published its annual financial results for 2017 and fourth-quarter operating supplement. Statutory Comprehensive Income more than doubled to $11.9 million from $5.4 million in 2016, and BAM’s claims-paying resources grew $64.7 million to $708.4 million.

Build America Mutual, the only mutual insurer of U.S. municipal bonds, today announced the formation of a new Strategic Advisory Committee that will advise BAM management on opportunities to build on the company’s five-year track record of growth. The founding members of the Committee will be Dan Keating (who will serve as chairman), Chris Hamel, Thalia Meehan, and Kenneth Williams.

On November 30th, Bloomberg Radio’s Bloomberg Markets program broadcast from Build America Mutual’s headquarters in New York, focusing on the challenges the US faces in meeting its infrastructure investment needs. The program featured interviews with various municipal market professionals who discussed a wide range of topics, from how issuers can manage their existing infrastructure budgets more efficiently to the fact that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act now pending in Congress may actually reduce capital investment in infrastructure by eliminating certain categories of tax-exempt bonds. Click through for links to the interviews.

As BAM wraps up its fifth full year of operations, BAM Co-Founders Bob Cochran and Seán McCarthy wrote to thank the issuers, investors, underwriters, and municipal advisors who have helped prove the value that BAM’s focused, municipal-only, AA/Stable-rated guaranty provides to issuers and investors.

Build America Mutual today published its third quarter 2017 financial results and operating supplement, Statutory Comprehensive Income was $1.1 million in the quarter and BAM’s claims-paying resources grew $10.8 million to $686.7 million.

Build America Mutual published its second quarter 2017 financial results and operating supplement, reporting a $13.7 million gain in claims paying resources in the second quarter of 2017, 36% higher than the same period in 2016. Par outstanding rose 7% to $37.6 billion. Statutory Comprehensive Income was $1.4 million in the quarter, versus $2.3 million in the same period of 2016.

In completion of a long-term strategic initiative, Build America Mutual, the largest active municipal-only bond insurer, announced today that White Mountains Insurance Group will contribute $203 million of BAM surplus notes as permanent capital for HG Re, the captive reinsurer that provides first-loss protection for BAM’s insured portfolio. In addition, BAM and HG Re have made changes to their reinsurance treaty that will accelerate the growth in BAM’s statutory capital in future years.

Build America Mutual today announced that S&P Global Ratings affirmed BAM’s AA rating and Stable outlook and removed BAM from CreditWatch. S&P’s decision marks the end of an intensive review of BAM’s first five years of performance and reflects the company’s transition from a “startup” to a “mature company” under S&P’s rating criteria for financial guaranty insurers.

S&P Global Ratings’ decision to place BAM’s rating on CreditWatch Negative represents a departure from their stated criteria and previous communications to the market. BAM’s managing directors said they intend to engage with S&P during the CreditWatch period to demonstrate that BAM’s financial strength and low-risk, low-volatility strategy of insuring only U.S. municipal bonds from essential public purpose issuers supports BAM’s current rating.

Gross Par Outstanding Increases to $35.2 Billion as Demand for Insured Bonds Outpaces Overall Municipal Market Volume

Build America Mutual announced record results for growth in claims paying resources, statutory comprehensive income,1 pricing, and total premiums in the first quarter of 2017. The results were driven by high investor demand for BAM’s insured municipal bonds, which offset a broad decline in new- issue municipal bond volume. Par outstanding rose 7% to $35.2 billion.

Thomson Reuters’ Municipal Market Data has revised the criteria for its generic insured yield curves to include bonds guaranteed by Build America Mutual, reflecting the increasing institutional demand for BAM-insured bonds and providing municipal market participants with a more complete way to gauge the relative value of insured and uninsured municipal bonds.
“The MMD insured yield curve is an important, independent tool issuers, investors, and advisors use to monitor market conditions and estimate the value insurance adds to their transaction,” said Rick Holzinger, BAM’s Head of Investor Relations. “BAM guaranteed approximately 45% of all insured municipal bond transactions over the last year, so a large segment of the market will benefit from having access to a reference point that is relevant to their sales.”