Ambac

Ambac Financial Group, Inc.

Financial Peace of Mind
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: AMBC (common stock) and AMBCW (common stock purchase warrants)
Industry	Financial services
Founded	New York City, U.S. (1971)
Headquarters	New York City, U.S.
Revenue	US$3.91 Billion (FY 2009)
Operating income	US$725 Million (FY 2009)
Net income	US$-14.6 Million (FY 2009)
Total assets	US$18.9 Billion (FY 2009)
Total equity	US$-2.29 Billion (FY 2009)
Number of employees	367
Website	www.ambac.com

The Ambac Financial Group, Inc., generally known as Ambac (originally the American Municipal Bond Assurance Corporation), is an American holding company. Its subsidiaries provide financial guarantee products such as bond insurance and other financial services to clients in both the public and private sectors around the world. Its common stock and common stock purchase warrants are listed on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbols AMBC and AMBCW respectively. Ambac is regulated by the insurance commission of Wisconsin. Through its financial services subsidiaries, the company provides investment agreements, interest rate swaps, investment advisory and cash management services, primarily to states, municipalities and their authorities. It has its headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Ambac and other bond guarantors such as MBIA were hit hard by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis and on January 18, 2008, its Fitch credit rating was lowered from AAA (the highest) to AA when its plans to raise two billion dollars in new capital failed.Moody's and S&P, however, chose to affirm Ambac's AAA with their agencies after it succeeded in raising $1.5 billion in new capital in March 2008. In early 2008, the spectre of the major bond guarantors failing to be able to pay off insurance claims on a trillion dollars of securities backed by sub-prime mortgages and other securitized debt led to attempts to shore them up with infusions of capital. On June 19, 2008 Moody's downgraded Ambac's credit rating three notches to Aa3.