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Regulators try to ease selling pressure on munis
Insurers can get new ratings on munis backed by downgraded bond insurers
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:45 PM ET Jun 2, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Regulators unveiled a plan on Monday that they
hope will relieve pressure on insurance companies to sell municipal bonds backed
by troubled bond insurers.
Several bond [...]

As mortgages included in some supposedly investment-grade securities hit default
rates over 80%, bond insurers are looking for signs of fraud in individual loans
and even entire packages of mortgages they have insured.
Chances are they will find lots of it, some experts say, which could lead bond
insurers to demand that issuers repurchase the loans. This would transfer [...]