AM Best is an American

credit rating agency A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of Default (finance), default ...

headquartered in Oldwick,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, that focuses on the

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

industry. Both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the

National Association of Insurance Commissioners The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is the U.S. standard-setting and regulatory support organization created and governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territo ...

have designated the company as a

Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization A nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) is a credit rating agency (CRA) approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide information that financial firms must rely on for certain regulatory purp ...

(NRSRO) in the United States.

Business

AM Best issues financial-strength ratings measuring insurance companies' ability to pay claims. It also rates

financial instrument Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...

s issued by insurance companies, such as bonds, notes, and

securitization Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and selling ...

products. AM Best publishes a series of printed and online resources of insurance professionals and publications. The oldest and best known is ''Best's Recommended Insurance Attorneys & Adjusters''. Insurance publications include ''BestWeek'', a weekly newsletter, ''Best's Review'', a monthly digital & print magazine, and an online

wire service A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...

called ''BestWire''.

History

Founded in 1899 by

Alfred M. Best Alfred Magilton Best (August 31, 1876 – May 6, 1958) was an American insurance industry executive who founded the firm now known as A. M. Best to evaluate the financial stability of insurance companies, their ability to pay claims, as well as th ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the

privately held A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

company moved to Morristown, New Jersey, in 1965, and subsequently to Oldwick in 1974. It also maintains offices in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

, Dubai, Mexico City, Singapore and a news bureau in Washington, D.C. While the company is best known in the United States, it is becoming increasingly well known in Europe, the Pacific Rim and Latin America. The company's London offices consist of A.M. Best Europe—Rating Services and A.M. Best Europe—Information Services. A.M. Best Asia-Pacific is located in Hong Kong and Singapore. A.M. Best America Latina is located in Mexico City. AM Best recently opened a branch of A.M. Best Europe in Amsterdam that provides Ratings Services.

References

External links

*
Guide to Best's Financial Strength Ratings
{{Authority control Companies based in Hunterdon County, New Jersey Credit rating agencies Financial services companies based in New Jersey Insurance industry organizations Tewksbury Township, New Jersey Financial services companies established in 1899

Business

History

See also

References

External links