In a series of ratings evaluations, A.M. Best has reaffirmed several issuer credit ratings for major insurance carriers and reevaluated the financial outlook for others. Insurance Business offers a quick recap of the most notable moves this week.
BA Insurance Group, which includes Balboa Insurance Company, Meritplan Insurance Company and Newport Insurance Company, received “A” issuer credit ratings—a reaffirmation of ratings Best assigned last year.
Best also revised BA Insurance’s outlook from negative to stable as its level of capital remains stable during the nearly three-year transfer of lender-placed business to Australia’s
QBE Insurance Group. The transfer is expected to complete by the middle of this year.
Things were not so good for Illinois-based Modern Woodmen of America, which saw its financial outlook moved from stable to negative. Its financial strength rating remained at an “A+” with an issuer credit rating of “aa-.”
Best explained the negative outlook as “reflect[ing] Modern Woodmen’s large proportion of interest sensitive reserves and the associated impact of spread compression on operating results in the current low rate environment.”
However, Best did call Modern Woodmen “one of the largest fraternal benefit organizations in the United States,” with a “strong risk-adjusted capital position” and consistently positive earnings.
Best also assigned “A” ratings to Burlington, Vt.-based MEMIC Casualty Company and its parent company, Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company, in Portland, Me. MEMIC’s other wholly-owned subsidiary, MEMIC Indemnity Company, received the same ratings.
The companies also received “A” ratings in financial strength, given their collective “strong capitalization, strategic importance to MEMIC Indemnity providing an alternative rating approach, as well as the explicit financial support of MEMIC.”
The Attorneys’ Liability Assurance Society, Inc., the mutual insurance company set up for members of ALAS, had a financial strength rating of “A” and an issuer credit rating of “a,” both of which were reaffirmed. The outlook for both ratings is stable, reflecting ALAS’s favorable operating performance and dedication to the professional liability market for attorneys.
Best is continuing to revisit ratings and financial outlooks for several major players in the insurance industry.
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