Core Entities Of German Insurance Group W&W Affirmed At 'A-' On Improved Enterprise Risk Management; Outlook Stable

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1 Research Update: Core Entities Of German Insurance Group W&W Affirmed At 'A-' On Improved Enterprise Risk Primary Credit Analysts: Silke Longoni, Frankfurt (49) ; Harm Semder, Frankfurt (49) ; Secondary Contacts: Volker Kudszus, Frankfurt (49) ; Marko Denic, Frankfurt; Table Of Contents Overview Rating Action Rationale Outlook Ratings Score Snapshot Related Criteria And Research Ratings List JULY 20, Standard & Poor's. All rights reserved. No reprint or dissemination without Standard & Poor s permission. See Terms of Use/Disclaimer on the last page

2 Research Update: Core Entities Of German Insurance Group W&W Affirmed At 'A-' On Improved Enterprise Risk Overview In our view multi-line insurance group W&W's enterprise risk management (ERM) is now strong, reflecting an improvement of the group's strategic risk management. Consequently, we now assess the group's core insurance subsidiaries' stand-alone credit profiles (SACP) at 'a' instead of 'a-', while maintaining our view of the banking subsidiaries' SACPs at 'bbb+'. We are affirming our 'A-' ratings on the group's core operating entities, and our 'BBB+/A-2' ratings on Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische, the holding company. The stable outlook reflects our anticipation that W&W's insurance and banking operations will be able to weather challenges from the ongoing low-interest-rate environment and achieve operating profits in line with our base-case projections. Rating Action On July 20, 2015, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A-' insurer financial strength and counterparty credit ratings on core entities of the Germany-based multi-line insurance group W&W (see the Ratings List). We also affirmed our 'BBB+' insurer financial strength and long-term counterparty credit ratings, and our 'A-2' short-term counterparty credit rating, on the group's holding company, Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische AG. The outlooks on all entities are stable. Rationale The affirmations reflect our view that the improvement in W&W's insurance entities' creditworthiness is insufficient for us to raise the ratings on the entire group, given the significant weight of the banking operations. Based on the share of allocated capital to each operating subgroup, we view W&W's overall business mix to be 60% insurance and 40% banking. With regard to W&W's insurance subgroup, we have revised our assessment of ERM to strong, reflecting in particular, our more positive view of strategic risk management. The group has implemented a strong and consistent risk-management culture across all insurance and banking operations. Our opinion takes into account that W&W has introduced harmonized and consistent processes to JULY 20,

3 identify, measure, and monitor its major risks across all segments and business units. We also view positively that W&W has introduced risk considerations into its sales management. Furthermore, we believe the group has enhanced its strategic risk management capabilities by integrating risk and return targets into its value-based management approach and key business areas, including strategic asset allocation, its reinsurance program, and new product process. Our overall view of ERM is also supported by our positive assessment of the group's risk controls. ERM is an important rating determinant because of the complexity of effectively managing and controlling the risks inherent to building-savings and insurance business. Our view on W&W's strong business risk profile and moderately strong financial risk profile is unchanged. The property/casualty insurance business' good market position and operating performance sustain our view of the insurance subgroup's business risk profile. We also believe W&W has strengthened its capital base over the past few years, but that capital adequacy will remain moderately strong, according to our risk-based capital model. The group's total adjusted capital currently benefits from retained earnings and the issuance of a hybrid instrument in Under our base-case scenario for W&W, we forecast capital adequacy to remain above our benchmark for 'BBB' in , supported by consolidated net income of about 200 million 220 million per year. We assess the group credit profile at 'a-', reflecting the combined SACP of the insurance subgroup and that of the banking subgroup, which we assess at 'bbb+'. We rate the holding company, Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische AG, one notch lower than the group's core operating entities. This reflects the structural subordination of the holding company's creditors to the group's insurance policyholders and bank depositors. Outlook The stable outlook reflects our assumption that W&W's insurance and banking operations will be able to weather challenges from the ongoing low-interest-rate environment and achieve operating profits in line with our base-case projections. We might lower the ratings over the next two years if, contrary to our expectations, W&W was unable to: Reduce its dependence on interest rates and offset unfavorable fixed-income investment conditions by maintaining operating margins; Maintain the cost of risk at its banking operations and a risk-adjusted capital ratio higher than 10%; and JULY 20,

4 Continue to report at least moderately strong capital and earnings on a consolidated basis. A positive rating action is a remote possibility during the next two years, given the dependence of the group's capital and earnings on the low yield environment, both at the life insurance operations and the building-savings banking business. Ratings Score Snapshot To From Financial Strength Rating A-/Stable A-/Stable Anchor a- a- Business Risk Profile Strong Strong IICRA Intermediate risk Intermediate risk Competitive Position Strong Strong Financial Risk Profile Moderately strong Moderately strong Capital and Earnings Moderately strong Moderately strong Risk Position Intermediate risk Intermediate risk Financial Flexibility Adequate Adequate Modifiers 0 0 ERM and Management +1 0 Enterprise Risk Management Strong Adequate with strong risk controls Management and Governance Satisfactory Satisfactory Holistic Analysis 0 0 Liquidity Exceptional Exceptional Support 0 0 Group Support -1 0 Government Support 0 0 IICRA--Insurance Industry And Country Risk Assessment. Related Criteria And Research Related Criteria Bank Hybrid Capital And Nondeferrable Subordinated Debt Methodology And Assumptions, Jan. 29, 2015 Group Rating Methodology, Nov. 19, 2013 Insurers: Rating Methodology, May 7, 2013 Enterprise Risk Management, May 7, JULY 20,

5 Management And Governance Credit Factors For Corporate Entities And Insurers, Nov. 13, 2012 Revised Market Risk Charges For Banks In Our Risk-Adjusted Capital Framework, June 22, 2012 Banks: Rating Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011 Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment Methodology And Assumptions, Nov. 9, 2011 Refined Methodology And Assumptions For Analyzing Insurer Capital Adequacy Using The Risk-Based Insurance Capital Model, June 7, 2010 Bank Capital Methodology And Assumptions, Dec. 6, 2010 Use Of CreditWatch And Outlooks, Sept. 14, 2009 Hybrid Capital Handbook: September 2008 Edition, Sept. 15, 2008 Ratings List Rating Affirmed Wuestenrot & Wuerttembergische AG Financial Strength Rating BBB+/Stable/-- Counterparty Credit Rating BBB+/Stable/A-2 Wuerttembergische Versicherung AG Financial Strength Rating A-/Stable/-- Counterparty Credit Rating A-/Stable/-- Subordinated Debt BBB Wuerttembergische Lebensversicherung AG Financial Strength Rating A-/Stable/-- Counterparty Credit Rating A-/Stable/-- Subordinated Debt BBB Junior Subordinated BBB Wuestenrot Bank AG Pfandbriefbank Wuestenrot Bausparkasse AG Counterparty Credit Rating A-/Stable/A-2 Additional Contacts: Insurance Ratings Europe; Financial Institutions Ratings Europe; Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect at and at spcapitaliq.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at Use the Ratings search box located in the left column. Alternatively, call one of the following Standard & Poor's numbers: Client Support Europe (44) ; London Press Office (44) ; Paris (33) ; Frankfurt (49) ; Stockholm JULY 20,

6 (46) ; or Moscow 7 (495) JULY 20,

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