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
Read more →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 →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.
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
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