Credit Ratings of Insurers in Singapore 2017

I got curious about the different credit ratings across Singapore's life insurer and started to compile the data. Here is the result of my curiosity.

Standard and Poors (S&P) is one of the top three credit rating agencies in the world (alongside Fitch and Moody's) and their opinion is highly regarded in the financial and economic world. The ratings are a reflection of S&P's opinion on how likely a company is able to meet its financial obligations. In the context of insurance companies, that means the policy payouts and cash values.

To give a better perspective of the credit worthiness, all three local banks (DBS, UOB, OCBC) are rated AA- (http://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/dbs-ocbc-uob-get-aa-credit-rating-from-sp).

In the case of the latest entrant in the market (FWD Singapore), it's apparent that their credit rating is way lower than the other more established brands. (Note that FWD's rating is by Fitch, which runs on an equivalent scale to S&P. Refer to http://multiple-markets.com/3ratingschart.htm)

Once again this shows that insurance companies are not all the same, and cheaper doesn't necessarily mean better. Guarantees by companies with different ratings may differ. Choose wisely.

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