Possible rating changes on the way

Alterations to Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rating criteria may herald changes to insurers’ ratings.

This is the opinion of Stuart Shipperlee, partner at Litmus Analysis.

“It’s unlikely that S&P would expect any fundamental systemic risk factors emerge from this that are not already captured in the existing ratings process,” he said.

“That said, placing the IICRA concept more centrally might highlight some individual inconsistencies across the currently rated universe, which could lead to some rating changes.”

Earlier today rating agency Standard & Poor’s announced it is changing its criteria for rating insurance companies to ‘enhance the transparency of its methodology and the comparability of ratings on insurers globally with those in other sectors.’