Aon Downgrades Bermuda Rating
Bermuda is one of 19 countries downgraded in Aon’s 2011 Political Risk Map, its benchmark annual review of political and economic risks.
Aon Corporation,a leading international provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, lowered Bermuda’s rating from a low-risk jurisdiction to medium low-risk. Despite its downgrade, Bermuda still has Aon’s second-highest rating as a medium low-risk country.
Bermuda was downgraded along with other island countries including Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados,the Cayman Islands, Comoros, Dominica, Grenada, Greenland, Antilles, St Vincent, Trinidad, St. Lucia and St. Kitts & Nevis “due to tighter global credit conditions which could lead to an increase in sovereign non-payment risk”, according to Aon.
Beverley Marsden, associate director of Aon Risk Solutions’ Crisis Management Practice, said: “We have seen 13 island nations move into a higher risk category this year because of the effect of a decline in tourism on their economy.”
In addition, Algeria, Benin, Myanmar, Iceland, and Bahrain were downgraded. Among the countries upgraded by Chicago-based Aon this year are Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Panama. A total of 19 countries were downgraded on the 2011 map, while 11 nations were upgraded.
Aon’s Political Risk Map ranks 211 countries on a six-point scale from low risk to very high risk. A downgrade on the map indicates the severity of the risk has heightened, while an upgrade indicates that the risk is less severe.
Wonderful news…keep it coming PLP!
Oh please Truth. You are going to blame the PLP for the AON downgrading of Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados,the Cayman Islands, Comoros, Dominica, Grenada, Greenland, Antilles, St Vincent, Trinidad, St. Lucia and St. Kitts & Nevis too??!?!?!
I didn’t realise they had such power over the world economy and governance!!!
All these same people kicking up how PLP this and PLP that and it’s THEIR fault the world economy went belly up and it’s Ewarts fault Belmont is in trouble and he shoulda known and PC isn’t helping the situation. And blah dee dah. Give it a rest already.
I’m not saying the current government is perfect with Bermuda having a one billion dollar unaccountable debt… but to blame PC or the PLP for what’s happening globally? Ludicrous. All the other Caribbean financial hubs are suffering too.
Do you really think that Bermuda’s economy should be rated on par with the aforementioned countries? I mean until this article I never had even heard of Comoros. No offense to those countries, but Bermuda’s economy has always been much stronger than any of those nations listed, even Cayman’s. The fact that we are now being downgraded along with these nations is an eye opener alone.
Don’t you think it is strange that Rwanda, a country that experienced massive genocide no longer than 15/16 years ago, has been upgraded but Bermuda has been subsequently downgraded?
BTW, the risk of non-sovereign payment is related to the country’s ability to pay back its debt. We have been downgraded mainly because of our debt levels and our current revenue levels. We had less than a $200mn debt when Dr. Brown took office and then subsequently left us with a debt that has mushroomed to well over $1bn and climbing. Whose fault is that?
Can’t blame the global economy on poor budget planning and the millions of dollars sqaundered on so called protect cost “overruns.” You can’t blame the global ecomomy on simple bad financial management.
Tired of nonsense, I agree with you. It is alarming when a country receives a downgrade like this from a reputable corporation like AON. Definitely a signal that something is wrong here. There was a time when we considered ourselves “better off” than many of these countries who are being upgraded. We thought ourselves better than those Caribbean countries to the south of us, and now? When I was in school not long ago, I was told often that we lived in one the wealthiest nations in the world. Can we say that now?
We’ve all heard about the lay-offs at the big law firms recently; well, I work for one of those firms, and it is interesting to note that my firm is not laying off people in other jurisdictions. We have offices all over the world, in the Caribbean, in Asia, and Europe, yet only the Bermuda office saw the need for cuts. Aren’t we all going through the same global recession? Yet government puts all the blame on the economy. So what are other places doing that we aren’t? We need to ask that question…
90% of them are in the Caribbean, and that’s the roots of this corrupt ,clueless govt.
Sorry Sal can you expand on this statement what do you mean?
LOL
Wow, you people are funny. Funny how no one mentioned this important fact in the above mentioned article “due to tighter global credit conditions which could lead to an increase in sovereign non-payment risk, according to Aon.”
Bermuda along with those other countries were downgraded because of tighter global credit conditions. Decline of tourism also played a part as well, in which the global recession played a major part in that.
So you honsetly don’t think that our skyrocketing debt levels and decrease in Govt revenue has nothing to do with the fact that there is a perceived threat that we will not be able to make payments? Do you think that we would have been downgraded if we are maintained the debt at the levels pre-Dr. Brown?
What about the countries that were upgraded? How did they manage to achieve that despite the fact that that there are “tighter global credit conditions which could lead to an increase in sovereign non-payment risk?”