MBIA announced today that subsidiary MBIA Asset Management has been restructured and renamed Cutwater Asset Management.
MBIA established the asset management unit in 1991 to service institutional investors. It presently oversees $42 billion in assets on behalf of its clients.
As Cutwater, the firm will focus "exclusively on its third-party business, maintaining a separate operating structure and reporting its financial results as a standalone segment of MBIA," a Feb. 8 press release said.
A part of the restructuring, MBIA transferred several employees to Cutwater to build-out its support staff, the statement noted.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based Cutwater team will be lead by Clifford Corso, who has been named president and CIO. He previously had the same titles at MBIA Asset Management, where he was credited with helping the firm become one of the ³largest fixed-income managers in the world.²
"We have built an experienced team and investment philosophy focused on the goal of consistently producing top-tier investment performance through any market cycle," Corso said in the statement. "The establishment of Cutwater formalizes our existing separation from an operational and financial perspective, and enables us to more effectively meet the needs of a widening array of institutional investors. We chose the name 'Cutwater', a stainless steel strip that protects the bow of a boat, to convey a guiding principle that defines our investment philosophy — successfully navigating our clients through turbulent waters while focusing on the long-term horizon and maximizing investment performance."
Corso added that operating as a separate asset manager will help institutional investors evaluate the firm on product innovation, service quality and consistent performance over the long-term.
