Fitch Revises Global Reinsurance Outlook to Stable as Capital Markets Open.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings has revised its outlook on the global 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. industry to stable from negative, reflecting relative improvements in the capital markets, macroeconomic mac·ro·ec·o·nom·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The study of the overall aspects and workings of a national economy, such as income, output, and the interrelationship among diverse economic sectors. conditions and the strong financial performance of reinsurance companies. Ongoing improvements in capital market conditions have sufficiently eased concerns regarding reinsurers' ability to access the capital markets on reasonable terms following a significant catastrophic event. Additionally, macroeconomic conditions, while still weak by many measures, have stabilized enough to support a stable rating outlook. Fitch views the reinsurance sector's credit quality as less sensitive to macroeconomic factors than that of many financial services sectors. Reinsurers are most directly exposed to macroeconomic deterioration through pressures on the asset side of their balance sheet, and Fitch notes that asset values have improved markedly over the last six months. Global (re)insurers tracked by Fitch generated strong results through the first nine months of 2009, characterized by significant underwriting profits and solid capital growth against a background of favorable capital market trends and ongoing weak economic conditions. Going forward, Fitch views the reinsurance sector's profitability and capital formation as susceptible to downward pressure on premium rates and less favorable reserve development trends but views these pressures as within normal cyclical expectations. For more information, a comment titled 'Global Reinsurers: Reinsurance Outlook Revised to Stable' is available on Fitch's web site www.fitchratings.com. Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com. ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP HTTP in full HyperText Transfer Protocol Standard application-level protocol used for exchanging files on the World Wide Web. HTTP runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol. ://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, 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 WEBSITE 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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