Fitch Affirms Reaseguradora Patria's IFS Rating at 'BBB'.CHICAGO -- Today, 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. affirmed Reaseguradora Patria PATRIA. The country; the men of the neighborhood competent to serve on a jury; a jury. This word is nearly synonymous with pais. (.q.v.) , S.A. (Patria)'s 'BBB' international scale insurer financial strength (IFS) rating. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Fitch Mexico, affirmed Patria's national-scale IFS rating of 'AA(mex)'. Fitch withdrew the 'BBB' international IFS rating for Patria's wholly owned Panamanian subsidiary, Reaseguradora Patria Internacional S.A. (Internacional). Internacional has been in run-off since 1999 and its license as a reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. company was canceled at Patria request following approval from the Panamanian regulator. Internacional's block of business was assumed by Patria. Patria's ratings strengths include its strong niche position in Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. reinsurance markets, particularly in Mexico as a result of its customer-service orientation and tenure in the market; tight management of underwriting risks and consistent focus on short-tail exposures; moderate credit, liquidity and currency risks in its investment portfolio; and consistent profitability. Patria's capital position, provides adequate support for growth and risk exposures and its solvency margin was more than 3.0 times the local regulatory requirement Regulatory requirements are part of the process of drug discovery and drug development. Regulatory requirements describe what is necessary for a new drug to be approved for marketing in any particular country. at year-end 2003. Underwriting results remain stronger than global peers, but are constrained by high costs of retrocessionary protections, on which Patria is dependent. Ratings concerns include the company's relatively small size, and the uncertainty this places on its long-term competitive positioning; heightened price competition from global reinsurers in the region; limited financial flexibility because of closely held A phrase used to describe the ownership, management, and operation of a corporation by a small group of people. In a closely held corporation, the same people often act as shareholders, directors, and officers, and no outside investors exist. ownership; higher-than-average exposures to property catastrophe losses and heavy reliance on the continuing availability of affordable retrocession RETROCESSION, civil law. When the assignee of heritable rights conveys his rights back to the cedent, it is called a retrocession. Erskine, Prin. B. 3, t. 5, n. 1; Dict. do Jur. h.t. . Patria also has higher exposure to equity holding than its global peers and is challenged to obtain adequate investment yields under the local regulatory environment and increasing volatility in local financial markets. Reaseguradora Patria is a Mexican property/casualty reinsurance company, whose main business lines are fire, auto and transportation which together accounted for 68% of net premium written (NPW NPW National Payroll Week NPW National Police Week NPW Net Premiums Written NPW Net Present Worth NPW NASA ParaWing (kite) NPW Not Proceeded With NPW New Pals Welcome (swapping) ) in 2003. Life and surety bonds reinsurance provided 14% and 4% of NPW, respectively. Slightly above 60% of NPW was Mexican business, while the balance was written in Central America Central America, narrow, southernmost region (c.202,200 sq mi/523,698 sq km) of North America, linked to South America at Colombia. It separates the Caribbean from the Pacific. , the Caribbean and some South American countries. Fitch's ratings are based on an international rating scale and are fully comparable to other Fitch international ratings assigned globally. Fitch Mexico's rating is based on a local rating scale unique to Mexico and is not impacted by sovereign rating issues. It is comparable only to other national scale IFS ratings in Mexico. Entity/Issue/Type Action Rating/Outlook Reaseguradora Patria, S.A. --Insurer financial strength Affirm 'BBB'/Stable. --National Insurer financial strength Affirm 'AA(mex)' Reaseguradora Patria Internacional, S.A. --Insurer financial strength Withdraw 'BBB'/Stable. |
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