Following Liberty Mutual's $6.1 billion acquisition of SafecoCorporation, A.M. Best has downgraded the issuer credit rating(ICR) of Safeco to align the ratings with Liberty Mutual.

The issuer credit rating of Safeco was lowered to "bbb" from"bbb-plus," and the ICR of Safeco Insurance Companies and itsmembers were lowered to "a" from "a-plus." The outlook for allratings is stable, Oldwick, N.J.-based Best said.

The financial strength rating (FSR) of Safeco remains "A," alsoin line with Liberty Mutual.

Best said the acquired Safeco entities will be integrated intothe Liberty Insurance Holdings (LIH) pool over the near term."[Liberty Mutual Group Inc.] has integrated a number of similartransactions over the years, and as in the past, A.M. Best willmonitor the progress of this integration going forward."

Best analyst Gordon McLean said, "We lowered [Safeco's] ICR; wemaintained the [FSR], so at this point, the ratings are equivalentto Liberty's ratings...because going forward, it's going to beintegrated into one of Liberty's pools."

He added that Safeco's FSR had been "A" before the acquisition,but Best had subsequently revised the positive outlook to stable toalign it with Liberty Mutual.