Rating Agencies

  • AM Best
    • Best's Review "Insolvency Studies"
    • Best's Insolvency Study
  • Duff & Phelps
  • Fitch
  • Moody’s
  • Standard and Poors (S&P)
  • Weiss Research
  • 1990 1215 - NYT - Moody's Cuts Debt Ratings of Five Leading Insurers, By Richard D. Hylton - [link]
    • The five are Mutual Life Insurance of New York, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance, Home Life Insurance, Equitable Life Assurance and Equitable Variable Life Insurance. 
    • Moody's said that the downgrading reflected concern over the near-term rise in problem assets in the insurers' mortgage portfolios and that the move had come after a three-month review.
      • The rating agency said the move reflected the rising pressures on earnings and capital that the companies would face as a result of losses and delinquencies on mortgages.
    • ... said Weston Hicks, a Moody's vice president. "From a credit point of view it means that the profitability of these companies will go down and the margin of protection for policyholders -- retained earnings and surplus -- will also lessen."
  • Enron is just one among a number of spectacular accounts of rating agencies’ lackluster performance in anticipating major debacles.

2004 01 - LR - Regulating the Rating Agencies, by Claire A. Hill - 53p

  • 1989 - SOA - Financial Condition of the Industry -- A View From Rating Organizations, Society of Actuaries - 14p

  • 1990 - SOA - Rating Agencies And Asset/Liability Matching, Society of Actuaries - 18p
  • 1990 1215 - NYT - Moody's Cuts Debt Ratings of Five Leading Insurers, By Richard D. Hylton - [link]

  • 1991 - SOA - The Ratings Game, Society of Actuaries - 30p

  • 1992 0129 - GOV (House) - Insurance Rating Companies, Cardiss Collins (D-IL) - [PDF-205p-GooglePlay]
  • 1993 - AP - When AAA Means B: The State of Credit Rating In India, by V. Raghunathan and Jayanth R. Varma - 28p
  • 1993 - SOA - Reinsurance and Rating Agencies. Society of Actuaries - 22p
  • 1995 - SOA - The Rating Games, Society of Actuaries - 26p
  • 2015 - AP - The rating of insurance companies during the financial crisis - 11p
    • 5. Conclusion
      • An assessment of the financial strength by rating agencies, although important, should not be the only factor used by insurance consumers.
      • Perhaps the most important question for future research is how well the various rating agencies predict, in fact, the insolvency of insurers.
  • 1992 0129 - GOV (House) - Insurance Rating Companies, Cardiss Collins (D-IL) - [PDF-205p-GooglePlay]
    • > Fred Carr, Executive Life
    • (p1) - Cardiss Collins, Chair (D-IL) - Today's hearing will examine the role of insurance rating companies.
      • As consumers become increasingly concerned about the solvency and financial stability of their insurance companies, the rating companies will play an even more important role.
        • Yet, questions have been raised about rating companies in the aftermath of the failures of Executive Life last spring and Mutual Benefit Life last summer.
        • Both life insurance companies were highly rated by rating companies until shortly before their collapse.
        • Today, we expect to learn the reasons why some of the rating companies were slow in pointing out the problems with ExecutiveLife and Mutual Benefit Life and what they have done to improve their rating systems.
        • Ratings were a key feature in the enormous growth of Executive Life before its failure.
    • House - Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness