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June 26, 2017

S&P Global Ratings Affirms BAM’s AA Rating and Stable Outlook – 2017

Build America Mutual today announced that S&P Global Ratings affirmed BAM’s AA rating and Stable outlook and removed BAM from CreditWatch. S&P’s decision marks the end of an intensive review of BAM’s first five years of performance and reflects the company’s transition from a “startup” to a “mature company” under S&P’s rating criteria for financial guaranty insurers

“S&P’s review confirmed what we’ve known from the start at BAM: A mutual bond insurer focused only on guaranteeing U.S. municipal bonds from issuers that deliver essential public services has unique strengths. Our portfolio is low risk with low volatility, and aligns perfectly with our low costs of capital and operations,” said Seán McCarthy, BAM’s CEO. “That, in turn, allows BAM to grow our financial resources organically and fulfill our mission of serving issuers and investors with enhanced market access and durable protection from default.”

“Maintaining strong, durable ratings has been part of BAM’s mission throughout our history, and we appreciate that S&P’s in-depth review concluded by affirming BAM’s financial strength. We thank everyone in the market who contributed feedback to S&P as they conducted their review, and look forward to continuing to work with our members and additional issuers of municipal bonds to help tackle the nation’s infrastructure investment challenges in the years to come,” said Bob Cochran, BAM’s chairman.

About Build America Mutual

BAM is a mutual bond insurance company operated for the benefit of its members – the cities, states and other municipal entities that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is sponsored by the National League of Cities.

Through June 16, 2017, BAM has insured more than $39 billion of municipal securities for more than 2,400 municipal issuers nationwide. Learn more at https://buildamerica.com/about-bam/

For more information, please contact:

Michael Stanton, Head of Corporate Strategy and Communications 212-235-2575; mstanton@buildamerica.com