AM Best has upgraded the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of Sagicor Financial Company Ltd. to "bbb" (Good) from "bbb-" (Good), along with the Long-Term Issue Credit Rating on its $550 million, 5.3% senior unsecured notes due 2028, which moved to "bbb+" (Good) from "bbb" (Good).
The rating agency also upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Issuer Credit Rating to "a" (Excellent) from "a-" (Excellent) for four operating subsidiaries: ivari, Sagicor Life Insurance Company, Sagicor Life Inc., and Sagicor General Insurance Inc.
AM Best separately affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) for Sagicor Reinsurance Bermuda Ltd., along with the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb+" (Good) for Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited. The outlook across all ratings is stable.
AM Best cited Sagicor's consolidated risk-adjusted capitalization, measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), at its strongest level, together with the group's very strong balance sheet and strong operating performance, as the basis for the upgrades.
The move is particularly notable for ivari, the Toronto-based insurer Sagicor acquired from Wilton Re in 2022. At the time the deal closed, AM Best downgraded ivari's Financial Strength Rating to A- from A and placed its ratings under review, reflecting integration uncertainty around the acquisition.
That review was resolved with an affirmation in 2024, and this latest upgrade now returns ivari's Financial Strength Rating to A, effectively completing a multi-year ratings recovery and signaling that AM Best views the integration of ivari into Sagicor's broader group structure as having strengthened rather than diluted the Canadian insurer's standalone credit profile.
The upgrade also arrives as Canadian life insurers work through a period of tightening capital scrutiny under OSFI's Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT), the framework federally regulated life insurers use to demonstrate solvency.
LICAT sets a minimum Total Ratio requirement of 90% and a minimum Core Ratio requirement of 55%, though OSFI's supervisory targets are considerably higher, at 100% and 70% respectively, and the regulator has continued refining the framework since IFRS 17 took effect for Canadian insurers in 2023, most recently finalizing a new capital treatment for segregated fund guarantee business in its 2025 LICAT guideline. Industry analysis has noted that OSFI continues tightening its calibration for longevity, credit, and catastrophe risk within LICAT, with additional buffers for climate and cyber exposures raising target core ratios and pushing some insurers toward subordinated debt issuance or reduced share buybacks to maintain capital cushions, a dynamic that has disproportionately burdened smaller, provincially focused carriers and helped accelerate consolidation across the Canadian life insurance sector.
Against that backdrop, a rating upgrade grounded specifically in strong risk-adjusted capitalization gives Sagicor and ivari a clearer capital story to point to with regulators, reinsurance counterparties, and distribution partners, at a moment when capital discipline, rather than simple balance sheet size, has become the primary lens through which the Canadian life insurance market is being evaluated. That context is reflected in how Sagicor's own leadership frames the upgrade.
Andre Mousseau, president and CEO of Sagicor Financial, said the company is pleased with the continued recognition of its financial strength through improvements in its credit ratings, both at the parent company and across many of its operating subsidiaries.
"These improved ratings will allow us to continue to expand our distribution reach and improve our cost of capital," he said.
For ivari specifically, the upgrade closes a loop that began with its acquisition three years ago -- a rating that was downgraded on uncertainty about integration has now been restored on evidence that the integration worked.
