AM Best Requests Comments on Proposed Revisions to ‘Best’s National Scale Ratings’ Criteria

AM Best is requesting comments from market participants in the insurance industry and other interested parties on a draft update to its criteria procedure, “Best’s National Scale Ratings (NSR),” which is available on the methodology section of AM Best’s website until April 23, 2025.

The revisions to Best’s National Scale Ratings includes the introduction of new NSRs for three countries: Algeria, Brazil and Thailand. These NSRs will allow greater differentiation among insurance participants in their respective markets. The new NSR mapping tables from the global Issuer Credit Rating (ICR) to the NSR accompanies the updated draft rating criteria. To denote the difference between a global ICR and Best’s NSR, the NSR will have an “.XX” with the XX representing a two-letter country code.

A Best’s NSR is a relative opinion of an insurance company’s financial strength within a single country. NSRs are constructed based on the financial characteristics of (re)insurers that are domiciled in the country, and to an extent, mitigate country-specific limiting factors in the global rating analysis. The draft criteria procedure and the accompanying mappings of new and existing scales will be available on the AM Best Rating Services Rating Methodologies website until April 23, 2025, through the following link: https://web.ambest.com/ratings-services/rating-methodologies.

AM Best does not expect the revisions to Best’s NSR criteria to impact any published Best’s Credit Ratings.

When submitting comments to the methodology in-box, commenters can select one of the following three options: Allow my comments to be made public and include my contact information; allow my comments to be made public but keep my contact information anonymous; or do not publish my comments (confidential). Written comments should be submitted no later than April 23, 2025, by e-mail to one of the following email addresses based on your selection:

• To allow your comment to be made public, including your contact information, please email Methodology.Public@ambest.com.
• To allow your comment to be made public, but keep your contact information anonymous, please email Methodology.Anonymous@ambest.com.
• To not publish your contact information or comments and keep all information confidential, please email Methodology.Private@ambest.com.

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 London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2025 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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