AM Best Requests Comments on Proposed Revisions to ‘AM Best’s Ratings on a National Scale’ Criteria

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AM Best is requesting comments from market participants in the insurance industry and other interested parties on the updated draft criteria procedure, “AM Best’s Ratings on a National Scale”, to be known as “Best’s National Scale Ratings” which is available on the methodology section of AM Best’s website until no later than March 28, 2023.

The revisions to Best’s National Scale Ratings (NSRs) include the introduction of NSRs for five countries: Egypt, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam. These new NSRs will allow greater differentiation amongst insurance participants in their respective markets. The mappings of the new tables from the global Issuer Credit Rating (ICR) to the NSR is included in the updated draft rating criteria. To denote the difference between a global ICR and Best’s NSR, the NSR will have an “.XX” where XX represents a two-letter country code.

A Best’s NSR is a relative opinion of an insurance company’s financial strength within a single country. NSRs are constructed based on the financial characteristics of (re)insurers that are domiciled in the country, and to an extent, mitigate country-specific limiting factors in the global rating analysis. The draft criteria procedure update is available on the methodology section of AM Best’s website until no later than March 28, 2023.

AM Best does not expect the revisions to Best’s NSR to impact any published credit ratings. At present, AM Best only issues NSRs in Mexico.

This draft criteria procedure is available at https://web.ambest.com/ratings-services/rating-methodologies.

When submitting comments to the methodology in-box, commenters can select one of the following three options: Allow my comments to be made public and include my contact information; allow my comments to be made public but keep my contact information anonymous; or do not publish my comments (confidential). Written comments should be submitted no later than March 28, 2023, by e-mail to one of the following email addresses based on your selection:

• To allow your comment to be made public, including your contact information, please email [e-mail].
• To allow your comment to be made public, but keep your contact information anonymous, please email [e-mail].
• To not publish your contact information or comments and keep all information confidential, please email [e-mail].

A video discussion on this subject with Greg Carter, managing director, analytics, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, is available at http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambnsrcriteriacarter223.

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.

Copyright © 2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.