Blue Cross Blue Shield MI & Sub 'BBB+' Rtgs Affirmed.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2003 Standard & Poor's--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it affirmed its 'BBB+' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Shield A US not-for-profit health care insurer that is a reimbursement intermediary for physicians. Cf Blue Cross. of Michigan (BCBSMI BCBSMI Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan )and its subsidiary, Blue Care Network of Michigan (BCN BCN Beacon BCN Blue Care Network BCN Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional (Chile) BCN Backbone Concentrator Node (routers, Nortel) BCN Banco Central de Nicaragua BCN Broadband Convergence Network ), based on BCBSMI's continued strong business position, strong management team, and focused corporate strategy. The ratings on BCN reflect explicit support from the parent. The outlook remains stable. "Strong liquidity is supported by investments in high-quality assets. However, only a good (though improving) level of capital and earnings offsets the positive rating factors," observed Standard & Poor's credit analyst Steven Ader. BCBSMI's capital adequacy ratio Capital adequacy ratio (CAR), also called Capital to Risk (Weighted) Assets Ratio (CRAR)[], is a ratio of a bank's capital to its risk. National regulators track a bank's CAR to ensure that it can absorb a reasonable amount of loss. , while good, is expected to continue its improvement toward levels more appropriate for the rating. Standard & Poor's expects BCBSMI's consolidated EAR, bolstered by the continued improvement in earnings ($270 pretax income pretax income Reported income before the deduction of income taxes. Pretax income is sometimes considered a better measure of a firm's performance than aftertax income because taxes in one period may be influenced by activities in earlier periods. in 2003; $314 million in 2004) to improve to 135% by year-end 2004. BCBSMI's enrollment is expected to increase 1%-2% annually. Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. , select Credit Ratings Lists. Standard & Poor's ratings appear alphabetically. Copyright 2003, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services |
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