Moody's Investors Service affirmed the Aa1 insurance financial strength ratings of Assured Guaranty Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd., while revising the rating outlooks to positive from stable.

The New York-based financial guaranty insurance company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bermuda-based Assured Guaranty Ltd. As of March 31, 2006 it had $2.7 billion of assets and shareholder's equity of $1.7 billion. Moody's positive outlook reflects AGC's progress in executing its revised business plan as a direct writer of financial guaranty insurance following its initial public offering in 2004.

"Although execution risk of AGC's revised business strategy remains, the company has made significant progress in establishing its direct financial guaranty insurance franchise," said Moody's pointing to an increase in the company's volume and diversity of business underwritten as well as the list of institutional investors that purchase its wrapped transactions.

At the same time, Moody's said the company has continued to maintain high quality underwriting standards and strong risk adjusted capitalisation while enhancing its corporate governance, operating infrastructure and risk management processes since its IPO. The current ratings also reflect AGC's challenges of executing its revised business strategy. Dominic Frederico, president and chief executive officer of Assured Guaranty Ltd., said, "We are extremely pleased by Moody's official recognition of our successful strategic execution and substantial progress made in building our direct financial guaranty franchise. We will continue to commit capital and resources to build our franchise and achieve our ultimate goal of triple-A ratings from all of the major rating agencies."