MBIA Posts $2.4 Billion Loss for 1st Quarter

MBIA, the biggest player in the troubled bond insurance industry, said Monday that it lost $2.4 billion for its first quarter, as the credit crisis continued to roil the subprime-based instruments that the company had insured.

The figure, which amounts to a loss of $13.03 a share, is a stark reversal from the $198.6 million and $1.46 per share in net income MBIA earned at the same time last year.

Driving the loss was a $3.6 billion unrealized loss on credit derivatives that the company had insured, which includes $800 million of credit impairments.