AM Best Revises Outlooks to Negative for Oswego County Mutual Insurance Company

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
AM Best has revised the outlooks to negative from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a” (Excellent) of Oswego County Mutual Insurance Company (Oswego) (Parish, NY).

These Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Oswego’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The revision in the outlooks to negative resulted from the company reporting year-end 2025 operating losses of $974,000, driven by an underwriting loss of $2.7 million. Oswego reported a combined ratio of 126.4% for 2025, which was materially elevated from the company’s historical norms, and marks the second consecutive year that operating performance has trended in an unfavorable direction. The company’s results for 2025 were heavily impacted by a significant and prolonged lake effect snow event that occurred in late February. The snowstorm event resulted in claims being reported for issues such as collapsed buildings, water backup and damaged roofs, with over 200 claims relating to the storm alone. When benchmarked against competitors, Oswego’s key five-year average operating performance metrics now trail those assessed at the strong level, as operating results in 2024 deviated from historical levels as well.

Oswego’s balance sheet strength remains assessed at the very strong level as the company has still been able to grow surplus despite posting net losses for the year while risk-adjusted capitalization remains at the strongest level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). As a 100% New York state property writer, Oswego’s business profile remains limited while its ERM assessment remains appropriate for the company’s scope and scale.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.