Credit Ratings

Please find below a table outlining QBE Insurance Group Limited's issuer credit rating and operating entity financial strength rating from three of the major rating agencies.

Find a brief and general description of the difference between the insurer financial strength ratings and issuer credit ratings and a general description of a rating outlook:

Insurer financial strength ratings (FSR) – an FSR is a forward-looking opinion about the financial security characteristics of an insurance organisation. It is this rating that buyers of insurance and reinsurance (and some service providers) focus on as it describes the ability of an insurer to meet its obligations (e.g. the ability to pay its claims).

Issuer credit ratings (ICR) – an ICR is a forward-looking opinion about overall creditworthiness in order to pay financial obligations. This opinion focuses on the capacity and willingness to meet financial commitments as they come due. Fitch’s equivalent term for the ICR is an Issuer Default Rating (IDR). For example, when QBE is issuing debt or bonds, then lenders (banks) or other potential investors (in debt) will focus on this rating as it is designed to assess our ability generally or specifically (in the instance of a debt raising) to meet our financial obligations.

Rating Outlook – rating outlooks indicate the direction a rating is likely to move over a one to two-year period. They reflect financial or other trends that have not yet reached the level that would trigger a rating action, but which may do so if such trends continue. For the more specific definitions used by each rating agency, please see their websites.