Assured Guaranty Ltd., the holding company for Assured Guaranty Corp. and Financial Security Assurance Inc. (FSA), announced today that Assured Guaranty Corp. guaranteed 864 US public finance new issue transactions, totaling $17.8 billion in par insured, during the first half of 2009. Par insured for the comparable period of 2008 was $17.8 billion. Assured Guaranty Corp. insured 9.1% of total U.S. public finance new issue volume in the first half of 2009, compared with 7.8% of par issued in last year's first half.

"We insured roughly the same number of transactions in the first and second quarters of this year, indicating consistent demand for our guaranty," noted Bill Hogan, Senior Managing Director of the Public Finance Group.

"We believe the market's continued confidence reflects recognition of our strong balance sheet and our ability to help both large and small issuers achieve cost-effective market access. Furthermore, we expect to expand this franchise significantly with the addition of our recently acquired FSA platform." (Assured acquired Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. on July 1, 2009.) [FSA new originations will be included in subsequent reports.]

Some notable transactions that Assured provided guaranties on during the first half of 2009 include: $108 million in general obligation bonds for Nassau County in New York; $260 million in payment-in-lieu-of-tax bonds for the New York Yankee Stadium Project; $339 million in revenue and revenue refunding bonds for the Commonwealth of Kentucky State Property and Buildings Commission; $308 million in subordinate revenue bonds for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and $295 million in revenue bonds for Virtua Health in New Jersey.