Latest S&P Headlines

All the headlines from our S&P Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Converium to Sell No. American Operations to National Indemnity; S&P, A.M. Best Comment

Oct 18 2006 // Swiss-based reinsurer Converium AG has reached agreement with National Indemnity, a Berkshire Hathaway company, to sell its North American operations for $295 million comprised of $95 million in cash and $200 million in...

S&P’s Ratings of USI Holdings Unchanged Following Borrowing

Sep 26 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said that its ratings on USI Holdings Corp. (BB-/Negative/–) were not affected by the company’s plans to raise $100 million under the accordion feature its existing...

S&P: Marsh & McLennan Rating Unaffected by Possible Putnam Sale

Sep 21 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said that it is taking no rating action on Marsh & McLennan Companies (BBB/Negative/A-2) following the firm’s decision to, as MMC phrased it, “do a market...

S&P Reports Atlantic Mutual Fails to Pay on Surplus Note

Aug 21 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services reported that it revised its counterparty credit rating on Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. to ‘R’ from ‘B+’ and its surplus note rating to ‘D’...

Outlook For China’s Insurance Sector Now Positive

Jul 30 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on China’s insurance sector to positive from developing to reflect expectations that the financial strength of the overall industry will improve over...

S&P Reports on Danish P/C Sector

Jul 6 2006 // A new report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services – “Non-Life Insurance Industry Risk Analysis: Denmark {Kingdom of}” – concludes that economic and industry risk are moderately low in...

S&P Affirms Norwegian Hull Club ‘A’ Ratings, Stable Outlook

Jul 6 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has affirmed its “A” long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Norway’s marine insurer Norwegian Hull Club (NHC or the club)...

S&P Upgrades Ming An’s Ratings to ‘BBB’ after Reinsurance Payment

Jul 6 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has raised its counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Ming An Insurance Co. (Hong Kong) Ltd. to “BBB” from “BB+” after the...

Standard & Poor’s Annual Insurance Conference

Jul 4 2006 // Despite recent adversity and scrutiny faced by the insurance industry, financial ratings for companies appear on the upswing.“For the first time that I can remember we have a period where none of the sectors that we...

U.S. P/C Industry Posts Record 1Q Profits; Net Gain on Underwriting Rises Nearly 21%

Jun 28 2006 // The U.S. property/casualty industry’s net gain on underwriting rose $1.4 billion, or 20.8 percent, to $8.4 billion in first-quarter 2006 from $6.9 billion in first-quarter 2005. The combined ratio — a key...

S&P Rates Kazakhstan Insurer ‘B+’

Jun 20 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned its “B+” long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings and its “kzBBB” Kazakhstan national scale rating to...

Ratings review

Jun 19 2006 // Safeco Outlook Positive Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its “A+” counterpart credit and financial strength ratings on the Safeco Intercompany Pool members. S&P also affirmed its...

U.S. COMMERCIAL INSURERS EARN BIG

Jun 19 2006 // At the midpoint of 2006, many commercial insurers are generating exceptional earnings, according to an article published by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. The article, which is titled “U.S. Commercial...

Cat model reassessments cause rating and capital changes

Jun 19 2006 // Last fall’s disastrous hurricanes provided some rough times for the catastrophe modeling industry. Consequently the principal cat modelers — Applied Insurance Research, EQE International’s EQECAT, and...

Ratings review

Jun 19 2006 // Safeco Outlook PositiveStandard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its “A+” counterpart credit and financial strength ratings on the Safeco Intercompany Pool members. S&P also affirmed its...

Hartford Resolves Equitas Claims, Completes Review; S&P Comments

Jun 16 2006 // The Hartford Financial Services Group has entered into an agreement with Equitas, the Lloyd’s runoff vehicle, and all Lloyd’s syndicates reinsured by Equitas that “resolves, with minor exception, all of...

S&P Lowers Norsk Hydro Captive Insurer INF’s Ratings to ‘A-‘

Jun 15 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has lowered its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Oslo-based Industriforsikring a.s. (INF) to ‘A-‘ from ‘A’, and...

S&P Reacts to Winterthur Sale; AXA Revised to ‘Stable’; Winterthur to ‘Positive’

Jun 14 2006 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services reacted quickly to the announcement that AXA and Credit Suisse have reached an agreement to sell Winterthur, the Swiss bank’s insurance division to the French insurer for...

Former S&P Analyst Ashab Joins Benfield

Jun 14 2006 // Benfield, an independent reinsurance and risk intermediary, has appointed Mohammed Ashab as senior vice president to its Financial Consulting practice. Before joining Benfield, Ashab was a director at Standard and...

For Reinsurers, Demand Is Up, Capacity Is Down, Alternatives Gaining

Jun 14 2006 // Whether in the U.S., the U.K., Bermuda, or elsewhere, the message from reinsurance companies is the same: demand is up, and capacity is down.However, it is still a lively market, with alternative capital sources such as...