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A timeline of some key events in the global financial crisis as they rippled into the municipal bond industry. Assembled from stories in the The Bond Buyer archives with help from material published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
July 24, 2007
Bloomberg News
Trouble bubbles across the housing market. In its second-quarter report, mortgage giant Countrywide Financial says "softening home prices continued to affect many areas of the country and delinquencies and defaults continued to rise across all mortgage product categories as a result." The troubled company is sold to Bank of America six months later. Mortgage lenders New Century Financial and American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. filed for bankruptcy during 2007.
Dec. 19, 2007
Bloomberg News
The downgrade storm begins for the municipal bond insurance business. Following its industry review, Standard & Poor's cut ACA Financial Guaranty to CCC from A; assigned a negative outlook to AAA-rated Ambac Assurance Corp., MBIA Insurance Corp., and XL Capital Assurance Inc.; and placed AAA-rated Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. on negative credit watch.
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