AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of Park Assurance Company
AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of 'a' for Park Assurance Company, with a stable outlook. The ratings highlight Park's strong balance sheet strength, strong operating performance, and robust enterprise risk management, underpinned by conservative loss reserving and a favorable investment portfolio. As a single-parent captive of JPMorgan Chase, Park plays a vital role in its risk management strategy, yet faces challenges like limited product offerings and tempered surplus growth from dividends to its parent.
- Affirmed Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent).
- Strong balance sheet strength categorized as strongest.
- Consistent favorable pure loss ratios and low-cost underwriting.
- Limited business profile due to product concentration risk.
- Tempered surplus growth as a result of dividends paid to parent.
- Potential credit risk from extensive use of reinsurance.
AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a” of Park Assurance Company (Park) (Colchester, VT). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.
The ratings reflect Park’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorizes as strongest, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.
Park’s strongest risk-adjusted capital position reflects its conservative loss reserving practices and favorable development trends, along with its conservative investment portfolio and strong liquidity measures. Park is well-capitalized through retained earnings, as the captive has reported consistently favorable pure loss ratios in combination with its low-cost underwriting expense structure to produce favorable operating earnings year after year that have outperformed the commercial property composite by a wide margin. The ratings further reflect Park’s sophisticated risk management strategy and practices, experienced management team and its integral role as a single-parent captive of JPMorgan Chase Holdings, LLC, which is a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) [NYSE: JPM], a leading global financial services group; however, Park’s business profile is considered limited due to its product concentration risk, offering limited lines of coverage on a net basis.
Partially offsetting these factors are the tempered surplus growth as a result of capital returned to its parent in the form of periodic stockholder dividends and its large underwriting risk appetite on a gross basis. The potential credit risk associated with Park’s extensive use of reinsurance, which management utilizes to mitigate its exposure to oversized losses on substantially valued insured locations, as well as its reliance on the protection afforded by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, are also offsetting factors.
Park provides JPMorgan Chase with global property coverages, including terrorism, as well as bankers blanket bond, and prior to 2017, general liability coverage. These coverages are key components of JPMorgan Chase’s risk management strategy, and Park benefits from the explicit support of the group’s significant financial resources and extensive professional resources.
AM Best remains the leading rating agency of alternative risk transfer entities, with more than 200 such vehicles rated in the United States and throughout the world. For current Best’s Credit Ratings and independent data on the captive and alternative risk transfer insurance market, please visit www.ambest.com/captive.
This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best’s Credit Ratings and AM Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper Use of Best’s Credit Ratings and AM Best Rating Action Press Releases.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
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