A.M. Best Downgrades Stockton Re Ratings to B++

A.M. Best announced that it has downgraded the financial strength rating of Bermuda-based Stockton Reinsurance Ltd. from A- (Excellent) to B++ (Very Good) following a review of the reinsurer’s financial condition.

Best sited the substantial losses Stockton Re has sustained “in connection with its Crowe Insurance Group Limited subsidiary, a Lloyd’s managing general agency.” It indicated that the syndicates which wrote airline, other aviation and marine coverage have been discontinued, and are now in run-off. 80 percent of Stockton’s remaining Lloyd’s business is now concentrated in U.K. auto insurance split about equally between between commercial and private.

Stockton also suffered from poor results in its finite reinsurance specialty lines said A.M. Best. The company has restructured, and cut costs, but the rating agency stated that, “Because Stockton has outsourced the majority of its business production activities and has narrowed its underwriting focus, A.M. Best is concerned with the company’s ability to generate significant volumes of high quality new finite accounts in the future.”