Malayan Insurance gets upgrade

MANILA, Philippines - Insurance rating agency AM Best Co. has issued a credit rating upgrade to Malayan Insurance Co. Inc. (Malayan), the country’s leading non-life insurance company.

AM Best is the world’s oldest and an authoritative insurance rating and information source.

Malayan received an upgrade from its previous rating of “BBB” to “BBB+”.

The insurance rating agency also affirmed Malayan’s financial strength rating (FSR) of B++ (good). The outlook for both ratings (ICR and FSR) is stable.  

The ICR upgrade was due mainly to Malayan’s solid-risk adjustment capitalization, prominent business profile in the Philippine insurance market and consistent strong investment performance, as noted by AM Best.

In its latest ratings report, AM Best said that Malayan’s capital and surplus has registered healthy growth since being rated in 2005.

Its risk-based capitalization level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) has been on an upward trend over the years.

AM Best added that the company’s capitalization level remained solid in 2011, despite experiencing losses from the Thai flooding.

“We expect that Malayan will maintain its robust capitalization level to support its current ratings in the near term,” AM Best said in a statement.

As of 2011, the company has assets of over P16 billion, the largest in the industry. Aside from its strong financial backing, Malayan also had its ISO 9001:2008 certification affirmed by the Certification International UK, following the successful audit of the company’s Quality Management System (QMS) late last year.

At the end of 2011, Malayan retained its number one position in the non-life insurance industry.

The Insurance Commission (IC) has not released that official individual company data for 2012.

Based on gross premiums written, Malayan made P5.995 billion in 2011, and P2.593 billion in terms of premiums earned.

This is the 42nd year in a row, since 1970, that Malayan has earned and kept the number one position.

A member of the Yuchengco Group of Companies, the top non-life insurer performance in the two crucial ranking categories confirms the strong and stable rankings provided Malayan Insurance by financial ranking institutions AM Best and Standard & Poors in 2011.

The Bankers Assurance Corp. (BAC) and the First Nationwide Insurance Corp. (FNIC) are also members of the Malayan Group of Insurance Companies, with Malayan as the leading entity.