Fitch's Prism: U.S. Insurer 'Beta' Capital Model Now Available.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of & LONDON -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. today launched the formal 'introductory period' of Prism, Fitch's global insurance capital model, which, when finalized, will be used to consistently evaluate capital adequacy from insurer-to-insurer in the agency's global industry analysis. This 'beta' version of Prism, now available for life and non-life insurers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , allows insurers to examine preliminary results of how they would perform under Prism, and what their capital requirements Capital requirements Financing required for the operation of a business, composed of long-term and working capital plus fixed assets. may be at various ratings thresholds. All U.S. insurers -- both those currently rated by Fitch and those that are not -- may participate in Beta testing (programming) beta testing - Testing a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the by completing a data survey that can be downloaded from Fitch's website, and returning it to Fitch. "This introductory period, which will last for five to six months, is a critical step in our launch of Prism within the global insurance markets," said Keith M. Buckley, Global Head of Insurance for Fitch Ratings. "Beta testing of Prism is designed to be a highly interactive process between Fitch and insurance companies, and is designed to result in an accurate and realistic final version of Prism that reflects each insurer's unique risk profile. We are inviting both rated and non-rated insurers to participate in the Beta testing to allow for the broadest possible level of industry feedback. We strongly encourage and welcome participation." Fitch will seek market feedback during this introductory period, and will continue to calibrate To adjust or bring into balance. Scanners, CRTs and similar peripherals may require periodic adjustment. Unlike digital devices, the electronic components within these analog devices may change from their original specification. See color calibration and tweak. Prism's assumptions based on this ongoing feedback. All preliminary results derived during the Prism Introductory Period will remain unpublished, and will not be considered in Fitch's rating analysis. After the close of the Introductory Period, currently targeted for early 2007, Fitch will execute its final version of Prism. While the beta versions of Prism are now available only in the U.S., they are expected to be available in France, Germany and the U.K. near the end of the third quarter of 2006. Prism is a fully global, stochastic By guesswork; by chance; using or containing random values. stochastic - probabilistic capital model and it reflects a major step forward in risk analysis. Prism is built using state-of-the-art technologies and will generate results based on thousands of scenarios, reviewing hundreds of risk curves and generating billions of calculations. The launch of Prism is complimentary to Fitch's use of insurers' own in-house capital models in evaluating capital adequacy for ratings purposes. Full details on the Prism insurance capital model is available by accessing www.fitchratings.com/prism. Here insurers and ratings users can find an overview of Prism, links to five Prism-related methodology reports, a link to an automated demonstration of the Prism process, and instructions to U.S. insurers of how to participate in beta testing. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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