S&P News

Dodd-Frank Swaps Rule Could Impact Insurers’ Risk Management, Ratings: S&P

Ratings analysts at Standard & Poor’s say that a Dodd-Frank provision having to do with derivatives could improve insurers’ risk management and have a minor impact on ratings. In response to the financial crisis of 2008, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank …

S&P Report: Reinsurers Discuss Industry Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy

A recent report, “Reinsurance Industry Leaders Discuss Lessons Learned From Hurricane Sandy,” published Nov. 29, 2012, on RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, notes that “reinsurers had three very good quarters until Superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast on …

S&P to Factor Country Risk into Insurance Ratings

Standard & Poor’s will change the way it assigns global ratings to insurers, in part to increase the consideration of country risk in the way a company is evaluated, the credit ratings agency said on Thursday. The changes will apply …

Spanish Economy in ‘Huge Crisis’ after Sovereign Debt Downgrade

Spain’s sickly economy faces a “crisis of huge proportions”, a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in two decades and Standard and Poor’s weighed in with a two-notch downgrade of the government’s debt. Spain’s unemployment rate …

S&P Lowers India’s Rating Outlook to Negative; Investment Rating in Peril

Standard & Poor’s cut India’s credit rating outlook on Wednesday to negative from stable, reflecting the toll that hefty fiscal and current account deficits and political paralysis are exacting on Asia’s third-largest economy. The negative outlook jeopardizes India’s long-term rating …

S&P Revises Argentina’s Sovereign Debt Rating Outlook to Negative

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook on Argentina’s sovereign debt rating to negative from stable on Monday, citing policies that include a government push to seize control of energy company YPF from Spain’s Repsol. President Cristina Fernandez announced the YPF …

Ratings Agencies Respond to The Hartford’s Plan to Exit Life Insurance

In response to Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.’s planned exit from some of its life insurance business, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services said it is downgrading the subsidiaries previously aggregated under Hartford Life, and assigning individual ratings and outlooks to …

UPDATE: S&P Sees No Rating Change for Ariel Re from C&S Sale to Arch

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has followed up on its analysis of its ratings for Bermuda-based Ariel Reinsurance Co. Ltd. following the announcement that it is selling its Bermuda-based business to Arrow, a unit of Goldman Sachs, and its credit …

Best, S&P React to Ariel Re Sale of Bermuda, Zurich Units

Both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s issued bulletins following the announcement that Ariel Re was selling off its Bermuda-based reinsurance business to Arrow, a unit of investment Bank Goldman Sachs, and its trade credit and surety (C&S) operations, which …

S&P: Excess Capital, Strong ERM Give Reinsurers 2011 Cat Loss Cushion

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it is “maintaining its stable outlook on the global reinsurance sector despite the near-record level of catastrophe losses in 2011,” as it doesn’t expect “a bias in the direction of any rating actions …