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Commitments and Contingencies - Additional Information (Detail) - Ambac Assurance [Member] $ in Thousands	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($)
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Loss Contingency, Damages Sought, Value	$ 285,000
Litigation settlement amount	$ 4,733

X

- Definition

The amount or range of possible amounts of gain that could be realized upon the resolution of a contingency.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 450
-SubTopic 30
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6397426&loc=d3e17499-108355

+ Details

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X

- Definition

Amount of judgment or settlement awarded to (against) the entity in respect of litigation.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
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Period Type:	duration

X

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

X

- Details

Name:	dei_LegalEntityAxis=ambc_AmbacAssuranceMember
Namespace Prefix:
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Balance Type:
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