We thought you might be interested in this forthcoming seminar, being hosted next week by AM Best at their London offices. If you would like to attend this event please advise Bryan Martyn at AM Best by e-mail or telephone (Bryan.Martyn@ambest.com / +44 20 7397 0292).
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Litmus is delighted to announce that we have been retained as ongoing consultants to The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), providing technical support on issues that relate to broker use of credit ratings and the subject of insurer solvency more generally. The two organisations currently provide BIBA
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Fail to prepare…prepare to fail: Best’s new criteria will mean rating upgrades and downgrades. One of the lessons I learned when I moved into the world of ratings having been a broker was that the market only really focuses on ratings when the bad news comes out.
Read more →Although effectively communicating the output is likely to be critical for European re/insurers Periodically we hear the comment that the required publication by EU domiciled re/insurers of details on their financial health under Solvency II (SII) may remove market demand to see re/insurer ratings. Here at Litmus, we seriously doubt that. Fundamentally the information that will be disclosed under SII will have to be interpreted by the user in order
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With the backdrop of the approaching New Year and many insurance and reinsurance policies being renewed at 1.1., it seems that we will no doubt see the use of “ratings downgrade trigger clauses” reach another high. The ability of individual re/insurance buyers to cancel a policy ab-initio
Read more →Following S&P’s initial downgrade last month we noted that RSA faced a further risk to its rating without fresh equity. This reflected the fact that even prior to its recent problems RSA’s prospective capital was only consistent with an S&P ‘BBB’ range financial strength rating. At that
Read more →During the summer both A.M. Best and Fitch assigned ‘positive’ outlooks to their current Lloyd’s market ratings. S&P did so last year. Translating the A.M. Best rating scale to the one used by S&P and Fitch this means that Lloyd’s is rated ‘A+’ with a positive outlook
Read more →Analysing a non-life re/insurer can be a complicated process; however some of the most important information is the data in the public accounts. This quick reference guide gives an overview of the more commonly used metrics and ratios. by its nature the guide summarises the descriptions provided.
Read more →Standard & Poor’s (S&P) recent release of the details of its review of the ratings of the 11 out of 13 members of the International Group (IG), which are interactively rated, brought with it a number of changes. The arrival of the new criteria has given S&P
Read more →The late ‘80’s was a very particular time and place in the City of London. ‘Big Bang’ and the Lawson boom set the tone for the UK’s financial centre’s own version of American Yuppiedom. Mobile phones the size of bricks, red braces, big hair, cocktails of dubious
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