DBRS Confirms Ratings of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.

DBRS has today confirmed the Issuer Rating, Claims Paying Ability, Subordinated Debentures rating and Preferred Shares rating of A (high), IC-2, “A” and Pfd-2 (high), respectively, of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAG or the Company). The trend remains Stable. Additionally, DBRS has discontinued the rating on the Industrial Alliance Trust Securities (IATS) of Industrial Alliance Capital Trust due to redemption of the securities.

Following the common share issue in March 2013 and subsequent debt redemptions, the Company has reduced its financial leverage to levels which have restored its financial flexibility through 2013 after having increased leverage earlier in order to preserve its strong regulatory capital levels in a difficult market environment. While reducing leverage, IAG has at the same time been increasing regulatory capital ratios from 217% at year-end 2012 to 227% as of Q3 2013. Following the planned Series C preferred share redemption at the end of December, this ratio should remain well above DBRS’s minimum expectations for the rating category.

Notes:
All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

The related regulatory disclosures pursuant to the National Instrument 25-101 Designated Rating Organizations are hereby incorporated by reference and can be found by clicking on the link to the right under Related Research or by contacting us at info@dbrs.com.

The applicable methodology is Rating Companies in the Canadian Life Insurance Industry which can be found on our website under Methodologies

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

DBRS will publish an interim report shortly that will provide additional analytical detail on this rating action. If you are interested in receiving this report, contact us at info@dbrs.com.