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Business Developments and Risks and Uncertainties | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2019
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Business Developments and Risks and Uncertainties | Note 1: Business Developments and Risks and Uncertainties Summary MBIA Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries, (collectively, “MBIA” or the “Company”) operates within the financial guarantee insurance industry. MBIA manages three operating segments: 1) United States (“U.S.”) public finance insurance; 2) corporate; and 3) international and structured finance insurance. The Company’s U.S. public finance insurance business is managed through National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation (“National”), the corporate segment is operated through M BIA Inc. and several of its subsidiaries, including its service company, MBIA Services Corporation (“MBIA Services”) and its international and structured finance insurance business is primarily operated through MBIA Insurance Corporation and its subsidiari es (“MBIA Corp.”). Refer to “Note 10: Business Segments” for further information about the Company’s operating segments. Business Developments Puerto Rico On January 1, 201 9, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and certain of its instrumentalities (“Puerto Rico”) defaulted on scheduled debt service for National insured bonds and National paid gross claims in the aggregate of $6 5 million. As of March 31, 201 9, National had $3.1 billion of gross insured par outstanding ($3.4 billion of gross insured par outstanding when inclu ding accreted interest on insured capital appreciation bonds (“CABs”)) related to Puerto Rico. Refer to the “Risks and Uncertainties” section below for additional information on the Company’s Puerto Rico exposures. COFINA Plan of Adjustment In February of 2019, the District Court confirmed the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation (“COFINA”) Plan of Adjustment, including the settlement agreement between Puerto Rico and COFINA. National insured bondholders were given the option of commuting their insur ance policy and receiving uninsured COFINA bonds or placing their new uninsured COFINA bonds into the National Custodial Trusts (the “Trusts”), receive Trust certificates and continue to benefit from a National insurance policy. The Trusts operate on a pas s-through basis; as the Trusts receive debt service payments from the new COFINA bonds, or sells these new bonds, the Trusts’ cash will be paid to the Trusts’ certificate holders and National’s insured exposure will reduce accordingly. To the extent Nation al’s policy obligations have not been satisfied by the maturity date of the original National insurance policies, the Trusts’ certificate holders will receive a claim payment from National at their maturity date for any remaining amounts. The Trusts were c onsolidated as variable interest entities (“VIEs”) within the U.S. public finance segment during the first quarter of 2019. Refer to “Note 4: Variable Interest Entities” for additional information about the COFINA VIEs. Risks and Uncertainties The Company’s financial statements include estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses. The outcome of certain significant risks and uncertainties could cause the Company to revise its estimates and assumptions or could cause actual results to differ from the Company’s estimates. The discussion below highlights the significant risks and uncertainties that could have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements a nd business objectives in future periods. U.S. Public Finance Market Conditions National continues to monitor and remediate its existing insured portfolio and will seek opportunities to enhance shareholder value using its substantial financial resources, while protecting the interests of all policyholders. Certain state and local governments and territory obligors that National insures are under financial and budgetary stress. This could lead to an increase in defaults by such entities on the payment of t heir obligations and losses or impairments on a greater number of National’s insured transactions. National monitors and analyzes these situations and other stressed credits closely, and the overall extent and duration of this stress is uncertain. Puerto Rico is experiencing significant fiscal stress and constrained liquidity due to, among other things, Puerto Rico’s structural budget imbalance, the lack of access to the capital markets, a stagnating local economy, net migration of people out of Puerto Ri co and a high debt burden. Puerto Rico continues in its efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and to otherwise recover from the impact of Hurricane Maria in 2017, aided in part by Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies. As part of t he Title III proceedings under Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”), Puerto Rico submitted several draft fiscal plans and an independent Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (“Oversight Board”) voted to certify the most recent fiscal plan. The current plan, or any revisions thereto, can provide no assurance that National will fully recover past amounts paid or future amounts that may be covered under its insurance policies. In addition, th e extent and duration of such aid is inherently uncertain, and the necessary and greater involvement of the federal government, through its actions to deliver disaster relief and other support services, in addition to the role of the Oversight Board and the role of Pue rto Rico in its own recovery, heightens political risk in connection with the restructuring of legacy debt. This risk could lead the Oversight Board, Puerto Rico or the federal government to seek to extract greater concessions from creditors based on the u ncertainty of Puerto Rico’s long term recovery prospects. In this event, losses at National on select Puerto Rico exposures could increase materially. MBIA Corp. Insured Portfolio MBIA Corp.’s primary objectives are to satisfy all claims by its policyholders and to maximize future recoveries, if any, for its senior lending and surplus note holders, and then its preferred stock holders. MBIA Corp. is executing this strategy by, among other things, pursuing various actions focused on maximizing the collection of recoveries and by reducing potential losses on its insurance exposures. MBIA Corp.’s insured portfolio performance could deteriorate and result in additional significant loss r eserves and claim payments. MBIA Corp.’s ability to meet its obligations is limited by available liquidity and its ability to secure additional liquidity through financing and other transactions. There can be no assurance that MBIA Corp. will be successful in generating sufficient resources to meet its obligations. Zohar and RMBS Recoveries Payment of claims totaling $919 million in November of 2015 and January of 2017, on MBIA Corp.’s policies insuring the C lass A-1 and A-2 notes issued by Zohar CDO 2003-1, Limited (“Zohar I”) and insuring certain notes issued by Zohar II, entitles MBIA Corp. to reimbursement of such amounts plus interest and expenses and/or to exercise certain rights and remedies to seek recovery of such amounts. MBIA Corp. anticipates th at the primary source of the recoveries will come from the monetization of the assets of Zohar I and Zohar II, which include, among other things, loans made to, and equity interests in, companies purportedly controlled by the sponsor and former collateral manager of Zohar I and Zohar II (the “Zohar Sponsor”) (all the assets of Zohar I and Zohar II, the “Zohar Assets”). On March 11, 2018, the then-director of Zohar I and Zohar II placed those funds into voluntary bankruptcy proceedings in federal bankruptcy court in the District of Delaware (the “Zohar Funds Bankruptcy Cases”). On May 21, 2018, the Court granted the Zohar funds’ motion to approve a settlement (the “Zohar Bankruptcy Settlement”) which established a process by which the debtor funds, through an independent director and a chief restructuring officer, will work with the original sponsor of the funds to monetize the Zohar Assets and repay creditors, including MBIA Corp. In addition, the Zohar Bankruptcy Settlement provides for a stay of all pending litigation between the parties for a minimum of fifteen months. S alvage and subrogation recoveries related to Zohar I and Zohar II are reported within “Insurance loss recoverable” on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. Notwithstanding the Zohar Bank ruptcy Settlement, there can be no assurance that the value of the Zohar Assets will be sufficient to permit MBIA Corp. to recover all or substantially all of the payments it made on Zohar I and Zohar II. MBIA Corp. also projects to collect excess spread from insured residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”), and to recover proceeds from Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. and Select Portfolio Servicing Inc. (collectively, “Credit Suisse”) arising from its failure to repur chase ineligible loans that were included in a Credit Suisse sponsored RMBS transaction. However, the amount and timing of these recoveries and collections are uncertain. Failure to collect a substantial amount of its expected recoveries could impede MBIA Corp.’s ability to make payments when due on other policies. MBIA Corp. believes that if the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYSDFS”) concludes at any time that MBIA Insurance Corporation will not be able to pay its policyholder claims, the NYSDFS would likely put MBIA Insurance Corporation into a rehabilitation or liquidation proceeding under Article 74 of the New York Insurance Law (“NYIL”) and/or take such other actions as the NYSDFS may deem necessary to protect the interests of MBIA Insurance Corporation’s policyholders. The determination to commence such a proceeding or take other such actions is within the exclusive control of the NYSDFS. Given the separation of MBIA Inc. and MBIA Corp. as distinct legal entities, the absence of any cross defaults between the entities and the lack of reliance by MBIA Inc. on MBIA Corp. for the receipt of dividends, the Company does not believe that a rehabilitation or liquidation proceeding with respect to MBIA Insurance Corporation would have any significant liquidity impact on MBIA Inc. Such a proceeding could have material adverse consequences for MBIA Corp., including the termination of insured credit default swaps (“CDS”) and other deri vative contracts for which counterparties may assert market-based claims, the acceleration of debt obligations issued by affiliates and insured by MBIA Corp., the loss of control of MBIA Insurance Corporation to a rehabilitator or liquidator, and unplanned costs. Refer to “Note 5: Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves” for additional information about MBIA Corp.’s r ecoveries. Corporate Liquidity Based on the Company’s projections of National’s dividends, additional anticipated releases under its tax sharing agreement and related tax escrow account (“Tax Escrow Account”), and other cash inflows, the Company expects that MBIA Inc. will have sufficient cash to satisfy its debt service and general corporate needs. However, MBIA Inc. continues to have liquidity risk that could be triggered by in terruption of or reduction in dividends or tax payments received from operating subsidiaries, deterioration in the performance of invested assets, impaired access to the capital markets, as well as other factors, which are not anticipated at this time. Fur thermore, failure by MBIA Inc. to settle liabilities that are insured by MBIA Corp. could result in claims on MBIA Corp.

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