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 →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 →On the 21st November S&P moved its ‘A+’ rating for SCOR’s core carriers to a positive outlook. A return to the ‘AA’ range would highlight the remarkable transformation of the group’s profile from the difficult position it found itself in a decade ago. SCOR’s path to recovery
Read more →The IAIS, with its proposal for additional risk-adjusted capital rules for major re/insurers, seems to be joining the regulatory bandwagon for seeing these as a potential source of threat to to the global financial system. However, other than when they choose to act as ‘shadow banks’, the
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 →This is a technical article reviewing recent actions by S&P in implementing their new criteria on the reinsurance sector. If you are interested in understanding this further, would like further clarification or would like to comment please feel free to mail us at info@litmusanalysis.com. (*/** indicate references
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 →The article below refers to Standard & Poor’s (S&P) new criteria document ‘Criteria | Insurance | General: Insurers: Rating Methodology’, dated 7 May 2013. In changing its criteria, S&P’s three stated goals have been to increase transparency, to make the ratings more prospective and to enhance consistency.
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