Major Aussie insurer has outlook boosted

A leading Australian insurer has had its outlook boosted and its rating affirmed by a global rating agency.

Insurance News

By Jordan Lynn

QBE has had its outlook revised upwards by leading international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

The ratings agency updated QBE’s outlook from ‘Negative’ to ‘Stable’ as the company also saw its ‘A+’ financial strength rating and its ‘A-‘ issuer credit rating affirmed.

John Neal, QBE Group CEO, said that the affirmation and outlook boost highlights how the company has grown over the previous twelve months with the company announcing a $1 billion turnaround earlier this year.

“We are pleased with Standard & Poor’s decision to revise our rating outlook to ‘Stable’ from ‘Negative.’ The revised outlook recognises the very substantial strengthening of our capital base and S&P have acknowledged our capital adequacy as ‘AA’ equivalent.

Neal noted that the S&P move echoes that of AM Best who revised their outlook for the company in January and Neal hopes that another agency will make a similar revision soon.

“The Standard & Poor’s announcement follows a similar decision by AM Best to remove QBE from ‘Negative’ outlook in January 2015 and we would hope a similar move by Fitch in due course.”

Fitch current gives QBE a ‘Negative’ outlook with a financial strength rating of ‘A+’ and an issuer credit rating of ‘A-.’

Keep up with the latest news and events

Join our mailing list, it’s free!