However, Moody's says risks still remain for MBIA Corp. because it holds approximately $22 billion of below-investment-grade insured exposures. The rating service says its continued review of the company will consider the potential losses of its remaining exposures and how that affects the group and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp., which insures municipal bonds.

During a recent earnings report, MBIA said it was in jeopardy of take-over by the New York Department of Financial Services to avoid insolvency because the risk exposure from BofA was weighing heavily on its earnings. The exposure stems from the implosion of the housing market in 2008 which triggered tremendous losses in financial instruments handling mortgage defaults. MBIA sued BoA, and a number of other banking institutions, saying they misled the carrier over the quality of the products insured. Yesterday, the last hold-out, Societe Generale settled with MBIA over the issue.

Charles L. Ruoff, president of CR Market Strategies, an insurance consulting firm, says the settlement brings MBIA "out of the emergency room" and some breathing room as it gets back to underwriting. The company survived, but in a substantially smaller form than when it dominated the surety market. He adds that the surety market is not as significant as it once was.

"They still need to prove that they are a major player in the market," says Ruoff