The securities carried AAA ratings, and yet offered much higher yields than other AAA-rated, non-MBS securities.
Because they were AAA-rated and yielded a premium over the banks' cost of capital.
The U.S. has not been a AAA-rated nation in the absolute sense for a while.
Because if you were, you know, an AAA-rated corporation, you didn't have any problem borrowing money.
AAA-rated structured products ahead of international implementation of the Basel 2 regulations on bank capital.
ECONOMIST: Not all triple-A ratings inspire total confidence
AAA-rated private-sector bank, faces no pressure to list on the Dutch stockmarket to raise capital.
AAA-rated muni bond maturing in five years is yielding around 1.8% now, which is about the same as five-year Treasury bonds.
Warren says Wells Fargo is "the only AAA-rated bank in the country" and that it has strong capital levels.
Faced with strong external demand for AAA-rated assets, the financial system got creative.
This facility will provide three-year term loans to investors against AAA-rated securities backed by recently originated consumer and small-business loans.
The rules created an incentive for banks to hold AAA-rated securities, which require less capital to be held against them.
ECONOMIST: The unintended consequences of past financial reforms
The credit rating agency put these five and Ireland with negative outlooks, joining the ranks of Portugal and AAA-rated France.
FORBES: And Here Come Some More Downgrades: Fitch Axes Italy, Spain, Others
Triaxx hit the market in 2006 as an AAA-rated security that was reportedly sold to investors as having little subprime exposure.
Kovitz is betting that, as the economy improves, it will become clear that the insurance accounts backing AAA-rated insured muni bonds are mostly solvent.
Also, if a bank turned stinky subprime loans into AAA-rated bonds, again it could massage down the capital it needed to hold.
Many of those that failed did so because they had purchased AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities thought to be both sound and liquid investments.
"He only stayed in the finest quality AAA-rated campgrounds, " the obit reads.
Investors flocked to AAA-rated firms such as American International Group, which could take big risks without having to post collateral with counterparties.
It has the biggest debt and deficit ratios among the euro zone's AAA-rated countries, and its banks are dangerously exposed to southern Europe.
ECONOMIST: How a skewed Franco-German partnership upsets the euro
That secondary market was rocked as the housing boom ended, more borrowers defaulted and thousands of AAA-rated securities based on those debt obligations tumbled.
Although they tended to buy AAA-rated paper, that designation is not as reliable as it used to be, as the credit crunch has shown.
The Fed will exchange the Treasury notes for other securities, including federal agency debt, federal agency residential mortgage-backed securities and nonagency AAA-rated private-label residential mortgage-backed securities.
Finnish lawmakers agreed with Athens that if Finland agreed to provide new loans it must first receive 20% collateral which it would invest in AAA-rated bonds.
Yields on supersafe Fannie Maes or AAA-rated bonds backed by mortgages on commercial buildings are 6.2%, and junk backed by commercial mortgages can pay more than twice that.
AAA-rated corporate bonds has risen by around 30 basis points.
He talked of the "structural advantages" of investing a big endowment backed by an AAA-rated university, such as allowing you to borrow at low rates when making leveraged bets.
But there was a shortage of genuine AAA-rated bonds.
ECONOMIST: The unintended consequences of past financial reforms
Before the crisis, the Basel rules provided an incentive to create AAA-rated securities (such as the infamous structured products linked to subprime mortgages), since they carried a low capital charge for banks.
In addition, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have jointly announced a facility that will lend against AAA-rated asset-backed securities collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit card loans, and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration.
If you buy dinner from a three-star Michelin restaurant you can be confident of getting a good meal, but today if you buy a bond from an AAA-rated borrower you can be rather less sure of getting your money back.
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