QBE Insurance Group's proposal to establish a new insurer and reinsurer in Belgium as part of its Brexit preparations will not affect how its credit quality will be assessed, S&P Global Ratings has announced.
QBE's move to establish the entity was to mitigate the likely impact of Brexit on its existing operations and continuity of service.
“We assess QBE's European operations as core to the group and have 'A+/Stable' ratings on key operating subsidiaries,” the ratings agency said. “The initiative will not change how we evaluate the creditworthiness of the group or operating subsidiaries. Consistent with our current approach, we will capture the assessed credit quality of the newly established entity within our group analysis. A key element of our credit assessment will be the extent to which we expect this entity to benefit from group support.”
The global insurer's new entity now awaits regulatory approval from the National Bank of Belgium and is expected to be operational by the final quarter of 2018.
