General Insurance Article - S&P says floods unlikely to reduce insurer ratings

 Standard & Poor's Ratings Services says that it does not expect the ongoing flooding in southern England to lead to negative rating actions on UK non-life insurers. Estimates of industrywide retained loss have ranged from £500m to £1,200m.

 The high end of these estimates would equate to a 4% increase in the combined (loss and expense) ratio. S&P would view such a loss as an earnings event rather than a capital event. Even if political pressure were to hinder insurers from recovering the full extent of their flood losses through raising premiums, we would not expect it to change our assessment of the UK non-life sector's industry and country risk.