Spanish insurer was stripped of its top tier rating

The UK operations of Spanish (re)insurer Mapfre insist they will be unaffected by the recent downgrade of their parent company.

Travel insurer InsureandGo, which was bought by Mapfre in 2010, said it did not foresee any impact on its business following the decision by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to strip Mapfre of it’s A- insurer financial strength rating and cut its core operating entities to BBB+ on 15 October.

An InsureandGo spokesman told Insurance Times: “From an InsureandGo perspective, while obviously disappointed with this news, we do not foresee that this will adversely affect either our day-to-day business, or the travel insurance business of Mapfre Assistance in the UK. Both of which are on target to make record turnover and profit in 2012.”

Last week, S&P cut trade credit insurer Atradius’s rating from A- to BBB because it was uncomfortable with the sovereign debt exposure of Atradius’s main shareholder, Spanish insurer Grupo Catalana Occidente.

This latest round of insurer rating cuts has fuelled more concerns over which other insurers could also be affected by their exposure to the eurozone.

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