Assured Guaranty Ltd. is seeking financial information from Puerto Rico, and is looking to Washington, D.C., for help, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The bond insurer, which guarantees repayment on about $3.8 billion of commonwealth securities, sent a letter on Wednesday addressed to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, which is representing Puerto Rico in its attempt to restructure $70 billion of debt, detailing multiple requests for information. The letter signed by Bruce Stern, Assured’s executive officer, was also sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other federal lawmakers working on legislation to address the island’s fiscal crisis. Assured says that it has failed to receive complete financial information that it is entitled to as insurer of commonwealth securities after repeated appeals during the last 18 months, beginning with a request for Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority maintenance agreements in September 2014. Assured is also seeking current balances for accounts that repay Highways debt and Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority bonds after the two agencies began using reserve funds to make their Jan. 1 debt-service payments. Assured needs the data to plan for possible draws on its insurance policies, Stern wrote in the letter.
