Warren Buffett Says Berkshire Not Interested in Troubled Bond Insurers

Warren Buffett says Berkshire Hathaway won't be investing in any troubled bond insurer, including Ambac and MBIA .

Buffett told Fox Businessanchor Liz Claman:

"We could have some kind of insurance transaction with them but we will not be investing in them or any other bond insurer. We've got our own bond insurer."

He's referring to the newly-created Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., which "tip-toed" into the New York bond insurancemarket last month.

Last week, we learned a group of state regulators is working with Berkshire on a single "streamlined" applicationfor licenses to sell bond insurance in all 50 states.

Buffett said in late December that his new bond insurer won't make the same mistakesthat Ambac and MBIA did, charging too little and taking on too much risk. It looks like Buffett doesn't want to be stuck with the fallout from those mistakes, so he won't be buying into the companies that made them.

In early January, Buffett's top insurance executive, Ajit Jain, had told us Berkshire was talking to Ambac and MBIAabout a possible partnership or purchase sometime in the future.

We could hear more from Buffett later today on the bond insurers and other subjects, when he appears in Toronto at a Business Wire event.

Berkshire's current price:

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