Confused About Ratings? S&P Wants To Help

Confused About Ratings? S&P Wants To Help

NU Online News Service, May 19, 9:30 a.m. EDT?Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it is offering a series of guides aimed at bringing "clarity to financial strength ratings."

The first issue of the guides, collectively named "Inside View," was published Friday and has been sent out electronically to S&P subscribers, the ratings agency said.

Peter Hughes, a director at New York-based Standard & Poor's, noted that with global insurance markets still depressed and widespread pressure on market participants, "the relative financial strength characteristics of insurers have come to the fore."

He said "Inside View" is designed to make financial strength ratings easier to understand, and, therefore, bring confidence to the insured party regarding its chosen insurance carrier.

Each issue of these guides, Mr. Hughes explained, examines a new subject, showing policyholders and other rating users the processes and methodology that lie behind insurer financial strength ratings.

S&P added that it aims to shed light on what impact different markets and sectors have on ratings, as well as how the "peculiarities of the market" are analyzed. Other topics would include S&P's default statistics and its terminology of ratings.

"The guides are bite-sized chunks of the insurance ratings business in an easy and accessible form," Mr. Hughes said in a statement. "They are available as a reference source for the market and are intended to help answer any questions the market has about ratings," he said.