A.M. Best Upgrades Ratings of North Pointe Insurance Company; Takes Various Rating Actions on Its Affiliates.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has upgraded the financial strength rating (FSR (Free System Resource) In Windows 3.x, the amount of unused memory in various 64K blocks reserved for managing current applications. Every open window takes some space in this area. See Windows memory limitation. ) to A- (Excellent) from B++ (Very Good) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) to "a-" from "bbb" of North Pointe Insurance Company (NPIC NPIC National Pesticide Information Center (formerly NPTN) NPIC National Passport Information Center NPIC National Photographic Interpretation Center NPIC National Photographic Intelligence Center ) (Southfield, MI). Concurrently, A.M. Best has affirmed the FSR of B+ (Very Good) and the ICR of "bbb-" of NPIC's sister company, North Pointe Casualty Insurance Company (NPCIC) (Jacksonville, FL). In addition, A.M. Best has assigned an FSR of B+ (Very Good) and an ICR of "bbb-" to Home Pointe Insurance Company (HPIC HPIC High Performance Ion Chromatography HPIC High-Pressure Ion Chamber HPIC Health Physics Instrumentation Committee (US Department of Energy) HPIC Hard Parallel Interference Cancellation ) (Coral Gables, FL). A.M. Best has also upgraded the ICR to "bb+" from "bb" of NPIC's parent holding company, North Pointe Holdings Corporation (MI) (NPHC NPHC National Pan Hellenic Council NPHC North Phoenix Heart Center ) [NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : NPTE]. The outlook for all ratings is stable. The upgrade of NPIC's ratings reflect its solid capitalization, improved operating performance, the balance sheet strength and financial flexibility of NPHC, as well as its consistently favorable loss reserve development. The above rating actions also consider the extensive efforts of NPHC to substantially decrease the organization's overall exposure to property catastrophe business in Florida. Since announcing its intent to decrease its catastrophe-exposed book of business in June 2006, the initiative has yielded an approximate 40% decrease in policy count, 75% decline in wind-exposed property total insured values and an 80% reduction in the calculated probable maximum loss Probable Maximum Loss (PML) The anticipated value of the largest loss that could result from the destruction and the loss of use of property, given the normal functioning of protective features (firewalls, sprinklers, and a responsive fire department, among others, in the (PML PML - Parallel ML. ["Synchronous Operations as First-Class Values", J.H. Reppy <jhr@research.att.com>, Proc SIGPLAN 88 Conf Prog Lang Design and Impl, June 1988, pp. 250-259]. ) for NPIC and NPCIC. HPIC, a Florida writer of homeowners and dwelling fire coverage, has experienced a considerable change in its book of business, largely reflecting the cancellation or non-renewal of properties constructed prior to 1994. HPIC's capitalization contemplates a $4.0 million capital contribution from NPHC received in December 2006. For Best's Ratings, an overview of the rating process and rating methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings. A.M. Best Co., established in 1899, is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit A.M. Best's Web site at www.ambest.com. |
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