So close and yet so far! How to turn a positive outlook into an upgrade. Achieving a rating upgrade once the outlook has been changed to positive is often regarded as little more than a formality. However, what could be taken for granted may turn out to
Read more →Re/Insurers rating downgrades: it’s not just about the capital! For almost all cedants and brokers the “financial strength” rating of their reinsurers remains a fundamental part of their selection process. For reinsurers, achieving and maintaining a rating at the desired level is mission critical. Many cedants themselves
Read more →You and your Rating Agency – Top Tips In an update to our article first published in 2013 (“The Litmus First XI – Top Tips for Managing the Relationship with your Rating Agency”), we share some further insights we have gained over the last four years.
Read more →Upgrades and downgrades are inevitable with A.M. Best’s new rating approach A.M. Best is currently in a ‘Request for Comment’ (“RFC”) period for proposed changes to its rating methodology. It is also just finalising an update to one crucial part of that, namely the capital model it
Read more →On the 20th January, S&P announced that – for the first time since 2006 – it expects a negative trend in reinsurer ratings in 2014. Of the 23 groups (including ‘Lloyd’s) it defines as ‘global reinsurers’ it notes that ‘nearly half’ are materially exposed to the competition
Read more →Recent rating downgrades and the risk of this continuing have focussed the attention of many brokers on an old problem; how, if they use ‘A-‘ as a minimum level of automatic acceptability, should they react to a downgrade of a former ‘A range’ carrier to the ‘BBB
Read more →As S&P continues to roll out ratings reflecting its new insurance criteria, those of Spanish reinsurers Nacional Re and Mapfre Re give a specific illustration of the impact of the sovereign rating. Many market participants have viewed the two reinsurers as fundamentally ‘A’ range security prior to
Read more →Controversial though they can be, financial strength ratings, and particularly those from S&P and AM Best, continue to be central to the transaction process in reinsurance globally and in many primary markets. The confirmation this week of fundamental changes in S&P’s ratings process is therefore, to borrow
Read more →This is an article written by Stuart Shipperlee in November 2012, before this blog existed. Nevertheless the content is still relevant and presages potential important news later this year. At its latest seminar this week, S&P confirmed again that rating changes, including some downgrades, are highly likely
Read more →