Background and Business Description

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Background and Business Description

1. BACKGROUND AND BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

The following description provides an update of Note 1. Background and Business Description in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included Part II, Item 8 in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and should be read in conjunction with the complete descriptions provided in the Form 10-K. Capitalized terms used, but not defined herein, and in the other footnotes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q shall have the meanings ascribed thereto in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (“AFG”), headquartered in New York City, is a financial services holding company incorporated in the state of Delaware on April 29, 1991. References to “Ambac,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” and “us” are to AFG and its subsidiaries, as the context requires.

AFG’s insurance subsidiary, Ambac Assurance Corporation (“Ambac Assurance" or "AAC") and its subsidiary, Ambac Assurance UK Limited (“Ambac UK”), are both financial guarantee insurance companies in run-off. Ambac Assurance and Ambac UK's outstanding insurance policies generally guarantee payment when due of the principal and interest on the obligations guaranteed.

During the three month period ended September 30, 2020, AFG acquired its insurance subsidiary, Everspan Insurance Company ("Everspan"), from AAC repositioning it as a subsidiary of a new intermediary holding company that is directly owned by AFG. This was done in an effort to optimize the legal organization structure to support potential new property and casualty insurance business initiatives.

Management reviews financial information, allocates resources and measures financial performance on a consolidated basis. As a result, the Company has a single reportable segment.

Strategies to Enhance Shareholder Value

The Company's primary goal is to maximize shareholder value through executing the following key strategies:

•Active runoff of Ambac Assurance and its subsidiaries through transaction terminations, policy commutations, reinsurance, settlements and restructurings, with a focus on our watch list credits and known and potential future adversely classified credits, that we believe will improve our risk profile, and maximizing the risk-adjusted return on invested assets;

•Ongoing rationalization of Ambac's capital and liability structures;

•Loss recovery through active litigation management and exercise of contractual and legal rights;

•Ongoing review of the effectiveness and efficiency of Ambac's operating platform; and

•Evaluation of opportunities in certain business sectors that meet acceptable criteria that will generate long-term stockholder value with attractive risk-adjusted returns.

With respect to our new business strategy, we continue to evaluate and pursue strategic opportunities in insurance, credit, asset management and other financial services that we believe would be synergistic to Ambac and would leverage our core competencies. While we have increased our efforts in evaluating such potential opportunities, we continue to be measured and disciplined in our approach as we seek to deploy our capital on opportunities that will generate sustainable long-term shareholder value. Although we are exploring new business opportunities for AFG, no assurance can be given that we will be able to identify or execute a suitable transaction and/or obtain the financial and other resources that may be required to finance an acquisition or develop any new businesses or assets. As a consequence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 ("COVID-19") pandemic, risks associated with our new businesses strategy have increased given uncertainties related to the resulting global recession, increase in business risk in our target sectors and disruption to the capital markets. Due to these factors, as well as uncertainties relating to the ability of Ambac Assurance to deliver value to Ambac, the value of our securities remains speculative.

The execution of AFG’s strategy to extract and increase the value of its investment in Ambac Assurance is subject to the restrictions set forth in the Settlement Agreement, dated as of June 7, 2010 (the "Settlement Agreement"), by and among Ambac Assurance, Ambac Credit Products LLC ("ACP"), AFG and certain counterparties to credit default swaps with ACP that were guaranteed by Ambac Assurance, as well as the Stipulation and Order among the OCI (as defined below), AFG and Ambac Assurance that became effective on February 12, 2018, as amended (the “Stipulation and Order”), and in the indenture for the Tier 2 Notes issued by Ambac Assurance on February 12, 2018, each of which requires the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin (“OCI”) and, under certain circumstances, holders of the debt instruments benefiting from such restrictions, to approve certain actions taken by or in respect of Ambac Assurance. In exercising its approval rights, OCI will act for the benefit of policyholders, and will not take into account the interests of AFG. AFG's strategy to extract and increase the value of its investment in Ambac Assurance is also subject to significantly more risk and uncertainty due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, issuers of debt insured by Ambac, and issuers of debt and other investments owned by Ambac. These consequences may include material losses in Ambac's insured and investment portfolios, higher earnings volatility, increased liquidity demands and greater counterparty risk.

Opportunities for remediating losses on poorly performing insured transactions also depend on market conditions, including the perception of Ambac Assurance’s creditworthiness, the structure of the underlying risk and associated policy as well as

other counterparty specific factors. Ambac Assurance's ability to commute policies or purchase certain investments may also be limited by available liquidity.