CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fitch Ratings has downgraded the Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings of American International Group, Inc.’s domestic non-life insurance subsidiaries to ‘A’ from ‘A+’. Fitch has concurrently affirmed AIG’s Issuer Default Rating (IDR) rating and debt ratings as well as life insurance subsidiaries’ IFS ratings. The Outlook for all ratings is Stable. A complete list of ratings is included at the end of this commentary.

The downgrades follow yesterday’s announcement by AIG that it expects to report a $4.1 billion pretax charge in the fourth quarter 2010 to increase its domestic non-life insurance subsidiaries’ reserves for prior-accident years.

The rating actions reflect Fitch’s view that the volatility of AIG’s domestic non-life subsidiaries’ reserves is inconsistent with expectations for the ‘A+’ ratings level.

The agency views AIG’s recent record of adverse reserve development as a significant outlier relative to that of the company’s large commercial insurance lines competitors and to the overall non-life insurance market. Fitch believes that this is partially attributable to AIG’s larger than its peers’ market share in long-duration excess casualty and workers compensation business lines which presents significant and unique reserving challenges. The agency notes that AIG has reduced these business lines’ relative contribution to the company’s overall non-life premium base with a goal that this could contribute to more stable reserves going forward.

Fitch believes that AIG’s domestic non-life insurance subsidiaries’ recent history of reporting significant adverse reserve development raises concerns about the companies ability to generate consistent run-rate underwriting results commensurate with their previous ratings. Fitch notes that while a majority of the reserve charge is attributable to older accident years, reserves for more recent accident years have also developed adversely.

Favorably, management has indicated that the effect of the reserve charge on AIG’s non-life subsidiaries’ capitalization will be partially offset by a $2 billion capital injection funded from proceeds generated by the recently completed sales of AIG Star Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and AIG Edison Life Insurance Company.

Fitch has affirmed AIG’s parent company ratings reflecting the agency’s on-going belief that upon AIG’s emergence from ownership by the U.S. Treasury, the company’s capital structure and earnings profile have the potential to support ‘standard’ insurance holding company notching.

Key rating drivers that could produce revisions in Rating Outlooks to Positive or lead to upgrades in AIG’s stand-alone IDR or its subsidiaries’ IFS ratings include:

–Enhanced underwriting profitability and reserve stability of the company’s non-life insurance subsidiaries;

–Further stabilization of sales trends and profitability of the company’s domestic life insurance subsidiaries;

–Material increases in risk-based capital ratios at either the domestic life insurance or the non-life insurance subsidiaries;

–Further declines in outstanding notional values of AIG Financial Products Corp.’s (AIGFP) CDS portfolio without significant liquidity or capital drains. Such a decline would most directly affect Fitch’s view of AIG’s stand-alone IDR;

–Further clarity around AIG’s plans for its International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) subsidiary and how ILFC’s funding needs over the long term can be met without adding contingent risks to AIG’s profile;

–The transition of AIG’s capital structure and leverage to that of a more traditional insurance holding company resulting in a narrowing of the notching between insurance company ratings and holding company ratings. Under such a scenario as government support declines, per Fitch’s notching criteria, the IDR of the holding company would migrate to one notch higher than the senior unsecured debt rating.

Key rating drivers that could produce a revision in the Rating Outlook to Negative or lead to downgrades in AIG’s stand-alone IDR or its subsidiaries’ IFS rating include:

–Declines in underwriting profitability and heightened reserve volatility of the company’s non-life insurance subsidiaries that Fitch views as inconsistent with that of comparably-rated peers and industry trends;

–Deterioration in the company’s domestic life subsidiaries’ sales or profitability trends;

–Material declines in risk-based capital ratios at either the domestic life insurance or the non-life insurance subsidiaries;

–Evidence that AIGFP’s CDS portfolio run-off is not proceeding as currently envisioned;

–A deterioration in Fitch’s view of the implied rating support provided by the U.S. Treasury’s interests in AIG that is not fully offset from a rating perspective by improvements in AIG’s stand-alone financial profile. The agency believes that the most plausible situation under which this could occur would be a significant unwinding of the Treasury’s ownership position prior to further run-off of AIGFP’s CDS portfolio.

–AIG’s inability to transition its capital structure and leverage to those of a more traditional insurance holding company could result in a widening of the notching between the insurance subsidiary ratings and the holding company ratings. Under such a scenario as government support declines, per Fitch’s notching criteria AIG’s senior unsecured debt ratings would migrate to one notch lower than the holding company IDR rating.

Fitch has downgraded the following IFS ratings to ‘A’ from ‘A+’ and assigned Stable Outlooks:

–Chartis Property Casualty Company;

–American Home Assurance Company;

–Chartis Casualty Company;

–Commerce and Industry Insurance Company;

–Granite State Insurance Company;

–Illinois National Insurance Co.;

–National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA;

–New Hampshire Insurance Company;

–The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania;

–Chartis Select Insurance Company;

–Landmark Insurance Company;

–Lexington Insurance Company;

–AIU Insurance Company;

–Chartis Specialty Insurance Company;

–Chartis MEMSA Insurance Company;

–Chartis UK Ltd.;

–Chartis Overseas, Limited.

Fitch has affirmed the following ratings with a Stable Outlook:

American International Group, Inc.

–Long-term IDR at ‘BBB’

–Senior debt at ‘BBB’;

–6.25% series A-1 junior subordinated debentures due March 15, 2087 at ‘B’;

–5.75% series A-2 junior subordinated debentures due March 15, 2067 at ‘B’;

–4.875% series A-3 junior subordinated debentures due March 15, 2067 at ‘B’;

–6.45% series A-4 junior subordinated debentures due June 15, 2077 at ‘B’;

–7.700% series A-5 junior subordinated debentures due Dec. 18, 2062 at ‘B’;

–8.175% series A-6 junior subordinated debentures due May 15, 2058 at ‘B’;

–8.00% series A-7 junior subordinated debentures due May 22, 2038 at ‘B’;

–8.625% series A-8 junior subordinated debentures due May 22, 2068 at ‘B’;

–5.67% series B-1 debentures due Feb. 15, 2041 at ‘B’

–5.82% series B-2 debentures due May 1, 2041 at ‘B’;

–5.89% series B-3 debentures due Aug. 1, 2041 at ‘B’.

AIG International, Inc.

–Long-term IDR at ‘BBB’;

–Senior debt at ‘BBB’;

–5.60% senior unsecured notes due July 31, 2097 at ‘BBB’.

AIG Life Holdings (US), Inc.

–Long-term IDR at ‘BBB’;

–7.50% senior unsecured notes due July 15, 2025 at ‘BBB’;

–6.625% senior unsecured notes due Feb. 15, 2029 at ‘BBB’.

American General Capital II

–8.50% preferred securities due July 1, 2030 at ‘BB-’.

American General Institutional Capital A

–7.57% capital securities due Dec. 1, 2045 at ‘BB-’.

American General Institutional Capital B

–8.125% capital securities due March 15, 2046 at ‘BB-’.

Fitch has affirmed the following IFS ratings at ‘A-’ with a Stable Outlook:

–AGC Life Insurance Company;

–Western National Life Insurance Company;

–SunAmerica Annuity and Life Assurance Company;

–American General Life and Accident Insurance Company;

–American General Life Insurance Company;

–First SunAmerica Life Insurance Company;

–SunAmerica Life Insurance Company;

–The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York;

–The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company.

ASIF II Program

ASIF III Program

ASIF Global Financing

–Program ratings at ‘A-’.

Additional information is available at ‘www.fitchratings.com‘.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

–’Insurance Rating Methodology’, dated Aug. 13, 2010;

–’Life Insurance Rating Methodology’, dated March 24, 2010;

–’Non-Life Insurance Rating Methodology’ dated March 24, 2010;

–’Insurance Industry: Global Notching Methodology and Recovery Analysis’ dated Dec. 29, 2009.

Applicable Criteria and Related Research:

Insurance Rating Methodology

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=547766

Life Insurance Rating Methodology

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=506285

Non-Life Insurance Rating Methodology

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=506369

Insurance Industry: Global Notching Methodology and Recovery Analysis

http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=493114

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Oct 04, 2010 (M2 EQUITYBITES via COMTEX) — Moody’s placed on Monday on review for possible downgrade the A1 insurance financial strength rating (IFSR) of Japanese AIG Edison Life Insurance Co.

The move follows the announcement of the company’s parent, US American International Group (NYSE: AIG | PowerRating) that it would sell AIG Edison and AIG Star Life Insurance to Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU | PowerRating).

AIG Edison’s current A1 rating reflects the general corporate guarantee agreement between AIG Edison and American Home Assurance Co (AHAC), also a unit of AIG.

In the analysts’ view, the sale may lead to the guarantee’s suspension and if that takes place, obligations in effect or contracted for on the date of termination would remain covered until extinguished.

Nevertheless, a termination of the guarantee would likely result in a rating downgrade for AIG Edison, in light of the prospective nature of ratings.

The agency considers that in the absence of the guarantee, AIG Edison’s standalone credit profile would be more accordant with an A3 level, two notches below its current A1 rating.

On the other hand, after AIG Edison becomes a member of Prudential Financial, its credit profile could be underpinned by its affiliation and integration with other Prudential companies in Japan, Moody’s noted.

Once the sale is completed, Moody’s will look into how effectively the Prudential group companies, including Gibraltar Life Insurance, can collaborate, and reflect the new situation in the AIG Edison rating.

In an attempt to payback government bailout loans, American International Group (A.I.G.) has struck a deal with Prudential P.L.C. (British financial services firm) that will leave A.I.G. without its Asian division, American International Assurance (A.I.A). Private talks began late last week and concluded today. The company is also in talks attempting to sell their foreign life insurance unit, American Life Insurance Co.

According to Reuters, A.I.G.’s Asian life insurance group sold for over $35 billion. It is one of A.I.G.’s most successful divisions, with over 20 million policyholders in Asia. A.I.G. has been planning to sell A.I.A. to help repay the more than $180 billion in government bailout money they received, but it could take until the end of the year for the deal to close. Additionally, it is estimated that American Life Insurance Co. could bring in about $15 billion if sold. A.I.G. is also looking to sell about a dozen small assets from International Lease Finance Corp.

“The administration supports the board of directors at A.I.G. in its decision to sell and recognizes this is a major step in the A.I.G. restructuring plan to de-leverage, de-risk, and pay back taxpayers,” Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said.

This is the largest deal in Prudential’s 162-year history, according to nytimes.com. Prudential is now the biggest player in Asian Life Insurance.

An abundance of public bitterness toward A.I.G. (American International Group) in the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008 may well have attached a stigma to the “A.I.G.” label, so it’s of but little surprise that dropping the name from some of their materials has correlated with a boost in sales.

A.I.G. is one of the country’s largest financial corporations.  It contributed quite noticeably to the credit crunch and then took an initial $182 billion from taxpayers under TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program); consequently, it finds itself a wide target for antipathy and sardonic incantations of the refrain “too big to fail.”

A.I.G. has not removed its name from its very own sales materials; rather, two of its subsidiary companies, Western National Life and First SunAmerica, stopped printing the parent corporation’s name on their contracts last June.  The business of these two subsidiaries has carried A.I.G. back to its place as the top seller of fixed annuities to bank customers.

The increased sales are all well and good for the banks, who earn commissions on the business; but how will A.I.G. fare?  An annuity works like a loan, with A.I.G. standing in the role of debtor, a role which raises the question of whether A.I.G. shall be able to repay its debts.  Already, another of A.I.G.’s subsidiaries, the American Life Insurance Company (AMLICO), overreached its capital by selling too many fixed annuities, necessitating the transfer of risk to other entities.

A related question: will A.I.G. ever pay back the taxpayers’ money?  A.I.G. has been beneficiary to more than one federal loan since the onset of the credit crunch.  Naturally, the investiture of the first loan created an incentive to continue assisting the company, lest it go belly up and fail to repay the loan; however, the political need to vindicate the original decision to inject public funds into the floundering company engenders an equally probable (and far more questionable) motive for continued federal assistance.

According to The New York Times, competitors believe that Western National Life’s remarkable sales are made possible by the latest infusion of money from the fed, which has allowed Western National to offer higher interest rates than anyone else in the industry.[i] If A.I.G. can duck creating a new microcosm of the global credit crunch (you may recall how government-supported financial organizations artificially inflated interest rates and contributed in large part to the unsustainable economy which fell apart in the crash of last year), then offering high interest rates on fixed annuities for the present might indeed pay off as a well-timed gambit, though that cannot come but at disruption to the rest of the financial industry (at the expense of the non-federally-assisted financial corporations).

On the other hand, it may simply be that Western National is able to make such seductive offers because it is genuinely good at what it does.  Western National claims that its long and positive history with the banks that sell its products enables it to create enticing but profitable products.