US insurance regulators have scaled back proposed oversight measures for credit rating agencies assessing insurers’ private debt investments following opposition from industry participants, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has reportedly revised plans that would have required rating providers to disclose confidential regulatory assessments and undergo additional scrutiny of how their credit risk evaluations compare across asset classes.
The changes follow objections from rating agencies including S&P Global Ratings and KBRA, which reportedly argued that the proposals could compromise the independence of credit assessments and disadvantage emerging asset classes, including private credit.
Under the revised framework, the NAIC will reportedly retain the ability to review information from credit rating regulators and assess whether individual providers or asset classes should remain eligible under its capital treatment framework. However, the updated proposals remove several of the more intrusive disclosure requirements initially proposed.
