Banking group to meet with NY's Dinallo over MBIA: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some 15 financial companies will meet Thursday with New York State's Insurance Superintendent to complain about a decision by MBIA (MBI.N), the world's largest bond insurer, to split its bond insurance unit into two companies, the Wall Street Journal said.

The group meeting with Eric Dinallo, who is working to shore up bond insurers' capital, includes many banks that feel disadvantaged by MBIA's move last month to separate its municipal bond operations into a new unit as it looks to rebuild a business shattered by the subprime mortgage crisis, the Journal said in a story on its website on Wednesday.

The banks are counterparties to MBIA on derivatives called credit-default swaps that were written on securities they own, many of which have deteriorated since the onset of the credit crisis, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

MBIA has been hit by large losses since 2007 as it took charges on billions of dollars of exposure to bonds linked to subprime mortgages.

(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Lincoln Feast)