AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Brit Reinsurance (Bermuda) Limited.
ENPNewswire-October 29, 2021--AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Brit Reinsurance (Bermuda) Limited
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Release date- 28102021 - AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of 'a' (Excellent) of Brit Reinsurance (Bermuda) Limited (Brit Re) (Bermuda).
The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
The ratings reflect Brit Re's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also benefit from the implicit and explicit support of its intermediate parent, Brit Limited (Brit), and its ultimate parent, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax) [TSX: FFH].
Brit Re, first incorporated in Gibraltar in 2007 and re-domiciled to Bermuda in November 2017, acts primarily as an internal reinsurer for its affiliates, Syndicate 2987 and Brit Underwriting Limited. Recently, Brit Re began writing casualty treaty reinsurance, as well as fronting for its affiliate's insurance-linked securities platform, Sussex Capital. The company continues to derive most of its premium from a quota share contract with Syndicate 2987.
Brit Re's very strong balance sheet strength is supported by historically profitable underwriting results and manageable premium growth. Liquidity measures are sound and supported by short-term, liquid holdings, predominantly high quality fixed income securities and cash.
While the company's risk-adjusted capitalization is maintained consistently at the strongest level, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), the overall balance sheet assessment of very strong also considers Brit Re's material catastrophe exposure and the limited fungibility of its invested assets. A significant portion of Brit Re's assets is pledged as collateral for a stop-loss contract written to provide Funds at Lloyd's (FAL) for Brit. The very strong balance sheet assessment also reflects that capital growth is constrained by occasionally sizable dividend payments made to Brit Re's publicly traded ultimate parent, Fairfax.
AM Best assesses Brit Re's operating performance as adequate, largely based on the performance of its all-lines quota share on business written by Brit's Syndicate 2987, of which Brit Re assumes a 20% share of net premiums written. The syndicate has obtained successive rate...
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