such as Ram Reinsurance Company Ltd. ("Ram Re") and AXA Re Finance. In 1999, ACE Ltd. acquired Capital Re, and renamed the company "ACE Capital Re." ACE Capital Re was spun off from ACE Ltd. in 2004 and renamed Assured Guaranty Corp. ("AGC"). AGC's parent holding company, Assured Guaranty Ltd. ("Assured Guaranty"), engaged through its subsidiaries in both financial guaranty insurance – through AGC—and reinsurance—through Assured Guaranty Re Ltd. ("AG Re"). In 1999, the New York State Insurance Department (NYID) issued guidance regarding insurance of obligations under credit default swaps, which facilitated the participation by financial guaranty insurers in the CDS market. The NYID guidance was subsequently codified by amendments to Article 69 of the New York Insurance Law. In 2001, Radian Group Inc. acquired Enhance Reinsurance Company and its affiliate, Asset Guaranty Insurance Company, renaming the companies Radian Reinsurance Inc. and Radian Asset Assurance Inc. ("Radian Asset"), respectively. Both companies engaged in financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance. In June 2004, Radian Reinsurance and Radian Asset Assurance merged, with the surviving corporation being Radian Asset. Financial crisis Events Bond insurers had guaranteed the performance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) since the 1980s, but their guaranties of that asset class expanded at an accelerated pace in the 2000s leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Bond insurers were also exposed to residential mortgage debt through collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) backed by subprime mortgage debt. The insurers had sold credit default swap (CDS) protection on specific tranches of CDOs. This business contributed to the monolines' growth in the early 2000s, with $3.3 trillion insured in 2006, with that contingent liability backed by approximately $47 billion of claims-paying resources. These exposures were all in compliance with Article 69 of the New York Insurance Law and other states' financial guaranty insurance statutes and with capital adequacy guidelines set by the rating agencies. As the housing bubble grew in the mid-2000s, bond insurers generally increased the collateral protection required for the RMBS they guaranteed. But when the housing market declined, defaults soared to record levels on subprime mortgage loans and new types of adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loans—interest-only, option-ARM, stated-income, and so-called "no income no asset" (NINA) loans—that had been developed and issued in anticipation of continuing appreciation in housing prices. The subsequent real estate market decline was unprecedented in its severity and geographic distribution across the U.S., and was