Underwriting

Our portfolio was built upon conservative underwriting standards both in terms of the types of risks we reinsured as well as the risk limits that we established. Our reinsurance was underwritten to a remote-loss standard, which means that at the time a policy on any particular transaction was issued (and when we reinsured it), no losses were expected for the entire term of the policy. In addition to our own views on the quality of the risks we assumed, such investment grade quality standards were independently established by the primary financial guaranty insurers and/or the rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard & Poor's, in substantially all of the transactions reinsured.