OREANDA-NEWS  On 04 December was announced, that Standard & Poor’s Rating Services, an international rating agency, affirmed the ‘BBB-’ long-term counterparty credit and financial strength ratings of IJSC Ingosstrakh and the ‘ruAA+’ Russia national scale rating.

In its report, Standard & Poor’s highlights a number of positive factors:

- strong management team with a positive track record capable of achieving the goals of the company's ambitious strategy aimed at making Ingosstrakh the   leading universal insurer in the Russian market;

- sustained adequate levels of operating performance;

- obvious competitive advantages in the domestic market due to the stable reputation and international experience;

- business diversification in CIS markets.

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook on the company to negative. The outlook revision reflects the deterioration in the quality of the company’s investment portfolio provoked by the ongoing domestic and international market turbulence, continued turmoil on equity markets and the downgrade of Bank Souyz which holds a substantial part of Ingosstrakh's placements with banks.

The management of IJSC Ingosstrakh says that Bank Soyuz is the settlement bank of Base Element Group and has been the insurer’s major settlement bank for the past five years. The share of Ingosstrakh’s reserve placements with the bank has never exceeded 11% of the total insurance reserves over the past five years.

Till quite recently, Ingosstrakh’s transactions via Bank Soyuz have been without limitations. The management of IJSC Ingosstrakh understands the challenges faced by Bank Soyuz due to the global financial crisis and the credibility crisis in the Russian banking system.

The management of IJSC Ingosstrakh responds to the financial risks in a timely manner and is certain that the current ‘BBB-’ long-term counterparty credit and financial strength ratings of IJSC Ingosstrakh is an adequate assessment of the company’s credit standing in today’s situation.

The management of IJSC Ingosstrakh expresses its understanding of Standard & Poor’s Rating Services position that has resulted in the recent tightening of Standard & Poor’s attitude to risks in the Russian banking system and the outlooks on companies and banks. Given the foregoing impact of the financial crisis on the methodology of Standard & Poor’s, the management of IJSC Ingosstrakh believes that the steps made by Standard & Poor’s have been unavoidable and, therefore, expresses its hope that the rigor and adequacy of methodologies of international rating agencies will contribute to the overcoming of the credibility crisis in the global financial system.