AM Best Revises Outlooks to Positive for Country-Wide Insurance Company

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AM Best has revised the outlooks to positive from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of C++ (Marginal) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “b+” (Marginal) of Country-Wide Insurance Company (Country-Wide) (New York, NY).

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Country-Wide’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as weak, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and marginal enterprise risk management (ERM).

The positive outlooks reflect improvements made to the organization’s ERM program in recent years. These enhancements include limiting the company’s risk appetite, improving salvage and subrogation recoveries with an in-house team, increasing fraud prevention and predictive analytics, settling claims earlier and writing more preferred business. These enhancements have come about as management has increased their focus on improving the book of business by writing new business with brokers that management considers to be core and terminating relationships with unprofitable brokers. These core brokers produce lower loss ratios and decreased claim frequency. These improvements have led to a decline in personal injury protection claims, as well as a decline in total claims, and continued additions to surplus. Country-Wide’s enhancements also have led to improved operating performance and balance sheet metrics year over year.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

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