OREANDA-NEWS. A.M. Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a” of Bear River Mutual Insurance Company (Bear River) (Murray, UT).

The revision of the outlooks to negative reflects the company’s recent below-average operating performance and the challenges faced by management to return underwriting results to historical profitable levels amid competitive market conditions. Starting late in fourth-quarter 2014 and continuing through first-quarter 2016, significant deterioration in the company’s pure loss ratio has been driven by increases in auto claim frequency and severity. According to management, the emergence of these trends has been attributed to several factors including inadequate pricing and macro-economic influences not only within the state but on a national scale as well.