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Financial Guarantees in Force (Notes) | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2017
Guarantees [Abstract] |
Financial Guarantees in Force | 6. FINANCIAL GUARANTEES IN FORCE Financial guarantees outstanding includes the exposures of policies that insure variable interest entities (“VIEs”) consolidated in accordance with ASC Topic 810, Consolidation. Financial guarantees outstanding includes the exposure of policies that insure capital appreciation bonds which are reported at the par amount at the time of issuance of the insurance policy as opposed to the current accreted value of the bonds. Financial guarantees outstanding exclude the exposures of policies that insure bonds which have been called, pre-refunded or refunded. The gross par amount of financial guarantees outstanding was $67,140,000 and $86,373,000 at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The par amount of financial guarantees outstanding, net of reinsurance, was $62,716,000 and $79,346,000 at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the guarantee portfolio was diversified by type of guaranteed bond as shown in the following table:
Net Par Outstanding December 31, | 2017 |  | 2016
Public Finance: |  |  |
Lease and tax-backed revenue | $ | 11,893,000 |  |  | $ | 15,688,000 |
Housing revenue | 6,312,000 |  |  | 6,508,000 |
General obligation | 6,257,000 |  |  | 9,867,000 |
Utility revenue | 2,212,000 |  |  | 4,298,000 |
Transportation revenue | 2,002,000 |  |  | 3,860,000 |
Higher education | 1,642,000 |  |  | 2,339,000 |
Health care revenue | 807,000 |  |  | 1,484,000 |
Other | 963,000 |  |  | 1,018,000 |
Total Public Finance | 32,088,000 |  |  | 45,062,000 |
Structured Finance: |  |  |
Mortgage-backed and home equity | 7,267,000 |  |  | 9,383,000 |
Investor-owned utilities | 3,274,000 |  |  | 3,833,000 |
Student loan | 1,238,000 |  |  | 1,388,000 |
Asset-backed (1) | 443,000 |  |  | 565,000 |
CDOs | 33,000 |  |  | 132,000 |
Other | 1,561,000 |  |  | 1,650,000 |
Total Structured Finance | 13,816,000 |  |  | 16,951,000 |
International Finance: |  |  |
Investor-owned and public utilities | 5,696,000 |  |  | 6,168,000 |
Sovereign/sub-sovereign | 5,664,000 |  |  | 5,211,000 |
Asset-backed (1) | 2,609,000 |  |  | 2,951,000 |
Transportation | 1,777,000 |  |  | 1,700,000 |
Mortgage-backed and home equity | 246,000 |  |  | 254,000 |
CDOs | — |  |  | 186,000 |
Other | 820,000 |  |  | 863,000 |
Total International Finance | 16,812,000 |  |  | 17,333,000 |
Total | $ | 62,716,000 |  |  | $ | 79,346,000 |
(1) | At December 31, 2017 and 2016, all asset-backed net par amounts outstanding relate to commercial asset-based transactions.
As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, the International Finance guaranteed portfolio by location of risk was as outlined in the table below:
Net Par Outstanding December 31, | 2017 |  | 2016
United Kingdom | $ | 13,554,000 |  |  | $ | 12,798,000 |
Italy | 877,000 |  |  | 898,000 |
Austria | 770,000 |  |  | 696,000 |
Australia | 608,000 |  |  | 1,393,000 |
France | 329,000 |  |  | 286,000 |
Internationally diversified (1) | 368,000 |  |  | 648,000 |
Other international | 306,000 |  |  | 614,000 |
Total International Finance | $ | 16,812,000 |  |  | $ | 17,333,000 |
(1) | Internationally diversified obligations represent pools of geographically diversified exposures which may include components of U.S. exposure.
Gross financial guarantees in force (principal and interest) were $108,550,000 and $137,745,000 at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Net financial guarantees in force (after giving effect to reinsurance) were $101,223,000 and $126,306,000 as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. In the United States, California, New York and New Jersey were the states with the highest aggregate net par amounts in force, accounting for 10.1%, 5.8% and 5.2% of the total at December 31, 2017, respectively. No other state accounted for more than 5.0%. The highest single insured risk represented 2.6% of the aggregate net par amount guaranteed.

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- Definition The entire disclosure related to the insured financial guarantees in force. Includes information regarding principal and interest insured. Additionally provides further details as to the type guaranteed bonds and geographic concentrations of risk. + References No definition available. + Details
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