Ambac Confirms Limited Direct Exposure to Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. and its Subsidiaries
NEW YORK, September 16, 2008 -- Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) (Ambac) today confirmed that it has limited direct exposure to Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries (âLehmanâ).
Ambacâs direct exposure to Lehman is limited to six interest rate and currency swap transactions where Lehman is the swap counterparty. Ambac has an insignificant net current payable balance, to Lehman. Ambac is exploring contract termination options to mitigate against any future credit risk to Lehman.
Ambac has no direct Lehman exposure in its financial guarantee or financial services investment portfolios. In addition, Ambac has no financial guaranty or CDS obligations related to Lehman. Ambac has reinsured surety exposure covering operational risk of lost or missing customer assets, not market value declines, at several broker-dealers, including Lehman Brothers, with a maximum aggregate exposure of $137 million. Ambac is not aware of any lost or missing customer assets at this time.
Ambac has indirect exposure to Lehman in two ways:
1. Ambacâs Financial Services business has approximately $1.3 billion in outstanding GICs backing Credit Linked Notes where Lehman is the CDS counterparty to the transaction. A Failure to Pay or Bankruptcy by Lehman could result in an Event of Default in these transactions, an early termination of the GIC and a return of the deposited monies at par. As previously announced, the State of Wisconsin, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, has approved up to $1.0 billion in future intercompany asset sales between Ambac Assurance Corp. and Ambac's Financial Services business, which will enhance the liquidity within the Financial Services business.
2. Ambac also has exposure to structured and municipal transactions where the issuer may have entered into a swap or a GIC with Lehman as a counterparty. In these cases, Ambac does not insure Lehmanâs performance under these swap or GIC transactions. Non-performance by Lehman may result in a financial impact on the issuer or transaction as it seeks to replace Lehman or seeks to collateralize Lehmanâs position.
In addition to these exposures, Lehman has various operating roles such as servicer or auction agent in several transactions insured by Ambac. Lehman also provides a limited number of revolving credit facilities which are available to issuers under certain Ambac insured commercial asset-backed transactions. Ambac does not expect any significant credit impact, to its insured transactions, of Lehmanâs inability to perform these activities. Ambac will evaluate each of these situations and work with the issuers to facilitate a transfer of these roles if appropriate.