You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: In our financial guaranty business, Assured Guaranty is having our best year for direct new business production in more than a decade based on direct PVP results since 2009 for both the third quarter and first nine months of 2020.
Additionally on a per share basis, Assured Guaranty's adjusted book value, shareholders' equity, and adjusted operating shareholders equity reached new highs.
As part of our capital management strategy, we have purchased more shares in nine months of this year than we did in all of 2019.
And our Board of Directors has authorized additional share repurchases of $250 million.
Also on October 1st, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Assured Guaranty would become a component stock of the S&P SmallCap 600 index on October 7th.
Both the price and trading volume of our shares increased on the news.
Presumably, because index funds and ETFs attract the S&P 600, as well as actively managed funds benchmark to the index began accumulating positions in our shares.
KBW estimated that has the funds that track the S&P 600 will need to purchase 8.7 million shares.
I think it's safe to say that certain passive investors and active small cap mutual funds and ETFs now form an additional base of AGO shareholders.
There are more than 2000 funds in the SmallCap investment category.
Turning to U.S. product public finance production, we wrote $93 million of PVP in the third quarter, more than double our third quarter 2019 PVP and an 11 year record.
In terms of insured par sold, we continue to lead the industry guaranteeing 64% of the $11.9 billion of primary market insured par sold in the third quarter, which was the industry's highest quarterly insured par amount since mid-2009 and 82% higher than in last year's third quarter.
Bond insurance penetration reached 8.3%, up from last year's third quarter penetration of 5.7%.
The 7.7% penetration for the first three quarter, municipal bond insurance industry is likely to see its best annual market penetration in the insured par volume in over a decade and this is still in a very low interest rate environment.
We benefited from credit spreads that are wired than at the beginning of the year, but this is still a market where AAA benchmark yields have been below 2% almost all year.
Wall Street Journal has called this increase in penetration, a renaissance in the municipal bond insurance industry.
Driven by the heightened demand for insurance, combined with a 35 [Phonetic] year-over-year increase in quarterly issuance, Assured Guaranty's third quarter originations totaled $7.5 billion of primary market par sold, essentially double the amount during the third quarter of 2019.
One of the new issues sold with our insurance in the third quarter was Assured Guaranty's largest U.S. public finance transactions since 2009, a $726 million of insured par for the Yankee Stadium project.
This transaction closed in October so it's PVP and par exposure will be reflected in the fourth quarter results.
It refunded $335 million of our previous exposure, so our net exposure to this credit increased by $391 million.
This is one of 19 new issues that utilize $100 million or more of our insurance during the third quarter.
For the first nine months, we provided insurance on $100 million or more of par on 32 individuals issued -- individual new issues, more than in any full year over the past decade.
Our significant capital resources and strong trading value on larger transactions are important competitive advantages.
We believe two types of investors have driven our increase in larger transactions.
The first our institutions investing in the traditional tax exempt market, which are attracted by our strong balance sheet and broad proficiency and credit analysis.
The others are non-traditional investors in the growing taxable municipal bond market, including international investors to internal resources to evaluating surveil U.S. municipal credits may be limited.
Actual issuance represented approximately 30% of the muni market's total new issue par volume during the first nine months of 2020 compared with 5% to 10% in recent years.
And 35% of our par insured on new issues sold in the period was taxable.
During those nine months, the par amount we insured on taxable new issues totaled $5.5 billion compared with $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2019.
In case of credits with underlying S&P or Moody's ratings in the AA category, we insured a total of $806 million of par for the quarter and during the first nine months more than $2 billion of par.
This year-to-date par volume is greater than our par volume of such AA credits in all of 2019.
This reflects the strength of our value proposition and the market's view of our financial strength.
Year-to-date through September, we provided insurance on $15.7 billion municipal new issue par sold, of which $1 billion -- which is $1 billion more than in all of 2019.
Combining primary and secondary market activity for the first nine months, we guaranteed $16.6 billion of municipal par, $6.2 billion more than in the same period last year, a 60% increase.
In international infrastructure finance, we completed the best third quarter origination since 2009's acquisition of AGM, producing $24 million of PVP, 52% more than in last year's third quarter.
Our guaranty is now a mainstream solution and widely accepted option for efficiently financing infrastructure development.
The flow of transaction inquiries is much stronger than it was just a few years ago and little over a year's time we guaranteed four solar power transactions in Spain, including the most recent one in August.
These transactions are good examples of how our guaranty makes the financing of renewable energy projects more cost efficient.
Another significant third quarter transaction was a GBP90 million private placement to finance improvements to students accommodations at Kingston University in the United Kingdom.
The high insured ratings and associated lower investment -- investor capital charges as well as the long tenure of many infrastructure bonds we guaranty makes them an attractive for institutions seeking to optimize long-term asset liability matching.
The impact of COVID-19 has temporary slowed the new issued transaction flow.
It is also creating conditions that we expect to provide significant international opportunities.
We believe downgrades with a potential for them could make our guaranty more valuable for even a broader range of essential investment grade infrastructure financings, such as airports that are crucial for the region's economies.
In the medium term, we expect a massive global policy initiative to invest in infrastructure and renewables.
Additionally, we see opportunities where guaranty has been underutilized.
In Australia for example, we are ramping up our business development and advertising efforts and working with the local origination consultant to help us expand our network of relationships on the ground.
Our international and structure finance groups often collaborate when it comes to bilateral risk transfer transactions that allow large asset portfolios to be managed more efficiently, whether from the perspective of capital efficiency, capital management, or risk mitigation.
Transactions of these types are a strategic focus of our structured finance underwriting group.
These tend to be large transactions requiring significant due diligence and the timing regular.
We have a number of them in progress and expect to close in the fourth quarter or next year.
In other aspects of structured finance, we continue to explore opportunities to add value to a variety of securitizations, including for example, those for whole business revenues, tax credits and consumer debt.
Now, let me provide some insight into the ability of our insured portfolio to weather today's unique economic circumstances.
We have continued to take a deep dive analytically into our highly diversified universe of insured exposures, especially in the sectors we view as the most potentially vulnerable to the consequences of pandemic such as mass transits, stadiums and hospitality among others.
What we found is that the underwriting we did to select the credits we've insured and the structural protections we've required in order to be able to guaranty those transactions and work the way they were intended.
We again model performance of transactions in vulnerable sectors under economic stress test, assuming no Federal assistance beyond what was already authorized before September as well as significant reductions in future revenues.
Having updated that analysis, we remain confident that we do not expect first time claims arising from the pandemic that will lead to material ultimate losses.
On some transactions that were already classified as below investment grade, prior to the pandemic, we did make marginal reserve adjustments.
As of now, we have paid no claims that we believe were due to credit stress arising specifically from COVID-19.
Last week, KBRA wrote that it used the pandemic as primarily a potential liquidity event for Assured Guaranty, it expressed that view in its ratings affirmation and release for our insurance companies last week, which were AA plus for AGM, MAC and our U.K. and French subsidiaries and AA for AGC.
We taken active role in managing risk at the transaction level.
This year, we have worked with some of our insured issuers to take advantage of low interest rates to reduce or to further debt service over the near-term through refinancings.
These transactions also typically benefit us by accelerating our premium earnings and generating new premium on refunding bonds that we insure.
I won't say a lot about Puerto Rico today because a new Commonwealth Administration will be starting soon and the composition of the Oversight Board is in flex.
Sub-Board members have resigned and new Board members joined and others may be reappointed or replaced.
I'll just repeat that achieving a consensual restructuring without further delay is the best thing that could happen for the people of Puerto Rico.
The recently announced release of $13 billion in federal assistance helped to improve the conditions for reaching such an agreement.
The integration of BlueMountain Capital, which we acquired last year is progressing.
In September we rebranded it, Assured Investment Management and rolled out the new branding on a newly launched Investment Management website.
These changes reflect the close alignment of our Investment Management business with our overall corporate strategy.
Assured Investment Management currently manages $1 billion of our insured companies investable assets.
Throughout the company, we are actively developing synergies between our Insurance division credit underwriting and surveillance skills and the Investment Management division's ability to structure and market investment products.
We want our Investment Management business to grow, as we continue to leverage our capital through the strategic business diversification.
I believe that Assured Guaranty is in good position, both in the market and financially.
I expect a strong finish for 2020, our U.S. public finance, international infrastructure and global structured finance businesses are strong pipelines of potential originations.
Assured Guaranty is fortunate to be a company designed from the ground up to be resilient and succeed in difficult times, which we proved during the previous recession.
As the effectiveness of our remote operations and the diligence and commitment of our employees made it possible for us to perform well and operating safely in challenging times, allowing us to continue to working toward protecting investors and securities we insure during uncertain economy, assisting issuers and funding public services and manage their fiscal challenges and building a greater value for Assured Guaranty shareholders.
This quarter we have continued to make progress on our strategic initiatives.
In our Insurance segment, our strong premium production is replenishing our unearned proved reserve, offsetting the amortization of the existing book of business, which will be accretive to future earnings.
In terms of capital management, year-to-date at September 30th, we have already repurchased 11.4 million shares, which is well over our initial plan of approximately 10 million shares.
As for our third quarter 2020 results, adjusted operating income was $48 million or $0.58 per share.
This consists primarily of $81 million of income from our Insurance segment, a $12 million loss from our Asset Management segment and a $18 million loss from our Corporate division which -- where we reflect our holding company interest expense as well as other corporate income and expense items.
Starting with the Insurance segment, adjusted operating income was $81 million compared to $107 million in the third quarter 2019.
This includes net earned premiums and credit derivative revenues of $113 million compared with the $129 million in the third quarter of 2019.
The decrease was primarily due to lower net earned premium accelerations from refundings and terminations, offset in part by an increase in scheduled earned premiums due to higher levels of premiums written in recent periods.
In total, accelerations of net earned premiums were $18 million in the third quarter 2020 compared with $38 million in the third quarter of 2019.
Net investment income for the Insurance segment was $75 million compared with $89 million in the third quarter of 2019, which do not include mark-to-market gains related to our Assured Investment Management funds and other alternative investments.
As we shift to alternative investments and continue our share repurchase program, average balances in the fixed maturity portfolio have declined.
As of September 30, 2020, the insurance companies have authorization to invest up to $500 million in funds managed by Assured Investment Management, of which over $350 million had been deployed.
Income related to our Assured Investment Management funds and other alternative investments are recorded at fair value in a separate line item from net investment income.
The change in fair value of our investments in Assured Investment Management funds was a $13 million gain in the third quarter 2020 across all strategies.
These gains were recorded in equity and earnings of investees, along with an additional $7 million gain on other non-Assured Investment Management alternative investments with a carrying value of almost $100 million.
This compared to only $1 million in fair value gains in the third quarter of 2019.
Going forward, we expect adjusted operating income will be subject to more volatility than in the past.
As we shift assets to alternative investments.
Loss expense in the Insurance segment was $76 million in the third quarter 2020 and was primarily related to economic loss development on certain Puerto Rico exposures.
In the third quarter of 2019, loss expense was $37 million also primarily related to Puerto Rico exposures, but was partially offset by a benefit in the U.S. RMBS transactions.
The net economic development in the third quarter 2020 was $70 million, which mostly consisted of $56 million in loss development for the U.S. public finance sector principally Puerto Rico exposures.
The Asset Management segment adjusted operating income was a loss of $12 million.
The impact of the pandemic continues to challenge the timing of distributions out of our wind-down funds and of new CLO issuance.
Additionally, price volatility and down grades have triggered over-collateralization provisions in CLO transactions that resulted in the third quarter 2020 management fee deferrals of approximately $3 million.
In the third quarter 2020, AUM inflows were mainly attributable to the additional funding of a CLO strategy under the intercompany investment management agreement, which we executed last quarter.
These represent assets in our insurance company subsidiaries' fixed maturity investment portfolios.
Our long-term view of the enhanced returns from the Assured Investment Management funds remains positive.
We believe the ongoing effect of the pandemic on market conditions and increased market volatility may present attractive opportunities for Assured Investment Management and for the alternative asset management industry as a whole.
Adjusted operating loss for the Corporate division was $18 million for the third quarter of 2020 compared with $28 million for the third quarter of 2019.
This mainly consists of interest expense on the U.S. holding company's public long-term debt as well as inter-company debt to the insurance companies that was primarily used to fund the BlueMountain acquisition.
It also includes Board of Directors and other corporate expenses and in the third quarter of 2020, it also include a $12 million benefit in connection with the separation of the former Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asset Management from the company.
From a liquidity standpoint, the holding company currently have cash and investment available for liquidity needs and capital management activities of approximately $82 million, of which $20 million reside AGL.
On a consolidated basis, the effective tax rate may fluctuate from period-to-period, based on the proportion of income in different tax jurisdictions.
In the third quarter 2020, the effective tax rate was a benefit of 32.7% compared with a provision of 16.3% in the third quarter 2019.
The tax benefit in the third quarter of 2020 was primarily due to a $17 million release of reserves for uncertain tax positions upon the closing of the 2016 audit year.
Turning to our capital management strategy, in the third quarter of 2020, we repurchased 1.9 million shares for $40 million for an average price of $20.72 per share.
Since the end of the quarter, we have purchased an additional 1.7 million shares for $46 million, bringing our year-to-date share repurchases as of today to over 13 million shares.
Since January 2013 our successful capital management program has returned $3.6 billion to shareholders, resulting in a 61% reduction in total shares outstanding.
The cumulative effect of these repurchases was a benefit of approximately $25.43 per share in adjusted operating shareholders' equity and approximately $45.48 in adjusted book value per share, which helped drive these important metrics to new record highs of $73.80 in adjusted operating shareholders' equity per share and over $108 million of adjusted book value per share.
Finally, in connection with the capitalization of AGM French subsidiary, AGM's third quarter 2020 investment income increased due to dividends received from its U.K. subsidiary, which increased AGM's 2020 dividend capacity to its holding company parent.
However, as always future share repurchases are contingent on available free cash, our capital position and market conditions.

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q3 adjusted operating earnings per share $0.58.

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