Ratings Recap: General (India), SCA, Successor Hurricane, Wing Lung, Dao Heng, Sovereign Assurance

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a-” of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) and has revised its outlook on both ratings to stable from negative. “The ratings reflect the revision of India’ s Country Risk Tier by A.M. Best and GIC’ s superior risk-adjusted capitalization,” said Best. The rating agency has revised India’s Country Risk Tier to Tier III from Tier IV, which it said indicates that “the impact of country-specific risk factors, which might negatively affect GIC’ s financial strength and ability to meet its financial obligations, has been lowered.”

Fitch Ratings has placed 19 residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) insured by SCA on Rating Watch Negative. The bulletin indicated that the move was “concurrent with its rating action earlier this month on Security Capital Assurance Ltd. (SCA) and its financial guaranty insurance subsidiaries”, which Fitch placed on Rating Watch Negative on Dec. 12. The action followed its “updated assessment of SCA’s current exposure to RMBS, SF CDOs backed by subprime mortgage collateral and CDO-squared transactions. XL Capital Assurance Inc. is a subsidiary of SCA. Fitch said its review of the currently ‘AAA’ rated insurer would continue

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned its ‘B’ senior secured debt rating to the $30 million series 6 class C principal at-risk variable-rate notes and its ‘B’ senior secured debt rating to the $30 million series 6 class D principal at-risk variable-rate notes, both issued by Successor Hurricane Industry Ltd. “These are the latest issuances under Successor Hurricane Industry’s established $1.5 billion principal at-risk variable-rate note program,” said S&P. “The proceeds from the issuance of the notes will provide Swiss Reinsurance Co. (Swiss Re; issuer credit rating: AA-/Stable/A-1+, financial strength AA-/Stable) with a source of index-based coverage for hurricanes in the U.S. on a per-occurrence basis over two years. Successor Hurricane Industry is a special-purpose Cayman Islands exempted company whose ordinary shares are held in a charitable trust.

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a-” of Hong Kong-based Wing Lung Insurance Company Limited (WLI) with stable outlooks. “The ratings reflect the company’s continued improvement in its risk-adjusted capitalization, stable overall operating performance and consistently conservative investment strategy,” said Best.

A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a-” of Hong Kong’s Dao Heng Insurance Company Limited (DHI), both with stable outlooks. The ratings reflect DHI’s consistently profitable underwriting results, strong risk-adjusted capitalization and management’s efforts to expand the company’s revenue sources,” Best explained.

A.M. Best Co. has upgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘A+’ (Superior) from ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) to “aa-” from “a+” of New Zealand’s Sovereign Assurance Company Limited, and has revised the outlook for both ratings to stable from positive. “The ratings reflect Sovereign’s leading market position in the New Zealand life insurance industry, strong new business growth, improved risk-adjusted capitalization and continued improvement in operating performance,” said Best. “The ratings also recognize the financial flexibility and operational synergies derived from Sovereign’s linkage with its ultimate parent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).