Interesting article on some obscure firm that insured against investment banks going belly up. They didn't even cap what could be insured and paid out should a firm go belly up. They originally were located in NY but when the NY regulators started questioning them they uped and moved to VT.
This will be interesting to watch unfurl
Billions in Lehman Claims Could Bury an Elusive Insurer - Companies * US * News * Story - CNBC.com
"Next to a Chinese restaurant in Burlington, Vt., lurks a quiet guardian of Wall Street — an obscure insurance company that is supposed to protect big-money investors in the event of a catastrophic failure of a major brokerage firm.
..
Capco was created in 2003 by Lehman and 13 other banks and brokerage companies as a kind of marketing tool. The pitch was that while Capco would not insure customers against investment losses, it would compensate them if the firms failed.
Capco promises to provide virtually unlimited coverage above the $500,000 offered by the Securities Investors Protection Corporation and its equivalent in Britain."
It is estimated that Lehman losses could be in the tens of billions and here's this firm with $150 million that S&P rated pretty high until recently. In Feb S&P dropped it altogether.