Fitch Ratings has developed new ratings standards for insurers in Europe and Asia/Pacific which it believes will improve transparency.
Fitch is more clearly delineating the impact of default risk and recovery given default on ratings, with reference to various global insurance regulations.
The new standards also take into account policyholder preferences and payment restrictions between operating companies and holding companies.
Fitch is assigning a new Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to all debt issuing entities that it rates. This is a pure measure of default risk at the entity level. Fitch believes that the distinction between the IDR and the senior unsecured debt rating adds a significant amount of value.
Many insurers' ratings have been revised upwards as a result of the change in methodology.
