Category: Economics

Categories
Business Culture Economics Lifestyle Perspectives Regulations & Security

AM Best affirms Credit Ratings of Farmers New World Life Insurance Company and Farmers Reinsurance Company

OLDWICK, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — #insurance—AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “a+” (Excellent) of Farmers New World Life Insurance Company (FNWL) (Bellevue, WA).

 

At the same time, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a” (Excellent) of Farmers Reinsurance Company (Farmers Re) (Woodland Hills, CA). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings of FNWL reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings also recognize the continued strategic value that FNWL provides to its ultimate parent, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.

 

FNWL’s ratings are supported by its risk-adjusted capitalization being maintained at the very strong level, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), a history of positive operating earnings, and material contributions to the overall group from new business value and operating profits. The company’s previously announced reinsurance agreement with Resolution Life Group Holdings Ltd. will allow a strategy shift going forward, enabling it to focus on a simplified product portfolio that is easier to sell and has shorter cycle times.

 

The ratings of Farmers Re reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM. The ratings also reflect the company’s strategic importance to Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.

 

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.

 

Copyright © 2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Contacts

Thomas Keelan
Financial Analyst
+1 908 882 1925
thomas.keelan@ambest.com

Edin Imsirovic
Director
+1 908 882 1903
edin.imsirovic@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey
Associate Director, Public Relations
+1 908 882 2310
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Al Slavin
Senior Public Relations Specialist
+1 908 882 2318
al.slavin@ambest.com

Categories
Business Culture Economics Healthcare Lifestyle Perks

New fad for beauty deals on Black Friday: Sitewide sales!

Black Friday is here and the beauty deals are rolling in.

 

Sitewide sales seems to be the new fad this holiday season: Kosas, Paula’s Choice and Glossier are all at least 20% off while bigger retailers such as Sephora and Ulta have deals on everything from Olaplex hair products to Dr. Dennis Gross peel patches.

 

Read more here:

https://variety.com/2023/shopping/news/best-black-friday-cyber-monday-beauty-deals-1235442297/

 

 

— Variety

Categories
Business Culture Economics Lifestyle Local News Programs & Events

Hughes asks the people to support local small businesses, and check out Mercer’s new Small Business Investment Program

With its highly skilled workforce, renowned educational institutions, and high quality of life, Mercer County ranks as one of the most attractive locations to call home and to open a business.

From the retail industry to the service sector, Mercer County offers customers a large variety of quality products and services.

“As a backbone to our regional economy, there are approximately 4,500 independently owned and operated businesses in Mercer County and on this Saturday, Small Business Saturday, it is important that we consider buying from these local stores and shops,” said Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes.

“Mercer County local businesses invest their dollars back into the economy. They purchase inventory and services from throughout the region and employ local residents. In addition, our Mercer County Office of Economic Development is proud to draw attention to the Mercer County Small Business Investment Program in partnership with SMBX,” Mr. Hughes added.

Through this partnership, eligible small businesses in Mercer County can apply to issue Small Business Bonds™ to their community. A bond is like a loan, but instead of borrowing money from a bank, you borrow money from everyday investors, like customers, friends and family.

SMBX supports small businesses from all industries across the US and have raised millions of dollars for restaurants, breweries, accountants, trucking companies, event planners, and others.

To learn more about the program, click here, and don’t forget to shop small this holiday season!

Categories
Business Culture Economics Lifestyle Perspectives Regulations & Security

AM Best removes from under review with negative implications and affirms credit ratings of Clear Blue Insurance Group members

OLDWICK, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — #insurance — AM Best has removed from under review with negative implications and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “a-” (Excellent) of the members of Clear Blue Insurance Group (Clear Blue) (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico).

 

The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. See below for a detailed listing of members and ratings.

The ratings of Clear Blue reflect the group’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

 

Clear Blue’s ratings were placed under review with negative implications on July 25, 2023, as a result of the uncertainty surrounding Clear Blue’s ability to rely on certain letters of credit, posted to back reinsurance placed by Clear Blue with certain reinsurers in Vesttoo-related transactions. Of particular concern was the potential balance sheet implications, in addition to the execution and timing risk associated with replacing capacity or letters of credit.

 

Over the past few months, Clear Blue has successfully moved active programs to either new reinsurers or reinsurers on its existing panels took higher percentages. All of these contracts have been signed and are fully collateralized. All “run-off” programs which remain in place are collateralized by funds held in cash from written premium. However, additional collateral on these programs above the funds held has not been replaced.

 

Clear Blue did take a $33 million temporary reduction in surplus in its second quarter 2023 filings due to the commission strain on unearned premiums. However, the impact decreased to $16.36 million in third quarter 2023 filings and is expected to gradually decline over the next few quarters before disappearing by mid-2024. In addition to the temporary implications, the lack of replacement collateral on the “run-off” programs resulted in a $10.7 million write down of recoverables that resulted in an underwriting loss of the same amount in third quarter 2023. The lack of replacement collateral also exposes Clear Blue to adverse development on these run-off programs.

 

To solidify its balance sheet, Clear Blue was recently infused with $25 million, $15 million of which was funded by a line of credit at the holding company and an additional $10 million funded by an equity infusion from Pine Brook. Given these capital initiatives, Clear Blue’s ability to replace capacity on active programs and the relatively modest financial losses, AM Best continues to assess the company’s balance sheet strength level as very strong.

 

From an ERM perspective, AM Best notes it has become evident through documents associated with Vesttoo’s bankruptcy filing that fraud was at the heart of this episode. In response to this fraud, Clear Blue has implemented more rigorous procedures around securing, documenting and confirming letters of credit. AM Best believes these actions to be appropriate.

 

The performance of the retained run-off programs remains uncertain and could potentially impact Clear Blue financially and operationally. The stable outlook that has been assigned reflects AM Best’s view that the actions taken by Clear Blue should continue to mitigate the potential negative impacts. However, if this view were to change, AM Best may need to take negative rating action.

 

The FSR of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of “a-” (Excellent) have been removed from under review with negative implications with a stable outlook assigned for the following property/casualty subsidiaries of Clear Blue:

  • Clear Blue Insurance Company
  • Clear Blue Specialty Insurance Company
  • Highlander Specialty Insurance Company
  • Rock Ridge Insurance Company

 

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.

 

Copyright © 2023 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Contacts

Gordon McLean
Senior Financial Analyst
+1 908 882 2109
gordon.mclean@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey
Associate Director, Public Relations
+1 908 882 2310

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Gregory Williams
Senior Director
+1 908 882 2434
greg.williams@ambest.com

Al Slavin
Senior Public Relations Specialist
+1 908 882 2318
al.slavin@ambest.com

Categories
Business Culture Digital - AI & Apps Economics Lifestyle Regulations & Security Technology

Email: Mt. Gox plans repay some creditors ‘within the 2023 calendar year,’ likely extending into 2024, marking the first step in repayments for all creditors

Quick Take

  • An email to creditors said that the defunct bitcoin exchange plans to commence cash repayments this year and will likely continue repaying into next year.

 

 

Mt. Gox plans to start repaying some creditors “shortly” in cash as stated in an email creditors received today.

The defunct bitcoin exchange, which collapsed in 2014, said in the email that the rehabilitation trustee is “making efforts to commence repayments in cash within the 2023 calendar year.” Repayments, however, will likely “continue into 2024” given the large number of rehabilitation creditors. 

“The specific timing of repayment to individual rehabilitation creditors is undetermined, and therefore, it will not be possible to provide advance notice to each rehabilitation creditor regarding the specific timing of their repayment,” Rehabilitation Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi said in the email.

Kobayashi noted that creditors may check the repayment status in its claim filing system.

In a separate document sent to creditors today, Kobayashi said that on Nov. 17, the rehabilitation trustee received the redemption of 7 billion yen ($46.9 billion) from the trust assets to fund the repayment. The remaining amount of the trust assets following such redemption was 8.8 billion yen, according to the notice.

The latest move appears to mark the first step in repayments for all. In September, Mt. Gox extended the deadline for rehabilitation creditor repayments from Oct. 31, 2023, to Oct. 31, 2024.

Launched in 2010, the Tokyo-based platform gained popularity and became the largest bitcoin exchange by 2013, servicing 70% of all bitcoin trades worldwide. However, it stopped all withdrawals in early 2014 when the business suspended trading. The site soon went offline, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection after losing over 800,000 bitcoins.

 

About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia reporter for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he’s not chasing headlines, you’ll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to tshen@theblock.co or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.

 

 

— Techmeme, (Timmy Shen / The Block)

Categories
Business Economics Energy Environment Science

Asbury Carbons Inc. announces price increases across all graphite product lines, cokes, and non-carbon materials

ASBURY, N.J. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Asbury Carbons Inc. announced on Friday that it will be introducing price increases for its graphite products (natural and synthetic) as well as cokes and non-carbon materials.

Price increases will range up to 10 percent, depending on the product and grade, and will go into effect for shipments beginning Jan. 1, 2024.

 

These price increases are necessary to help offset the increased cost of raw materials, energy, transportation, and manufacturing.

 

About Asbury Carbon, Inc.

Founded in 1895 by Harry M. Riddle and based in Asbury, NJ, Asbury Carbons Inc. is the world’s most reliable source for high-quality graphite, cokes, carbon materials, and graphene-engineered solutions.

 

The company provides more than 2,000 grades of materials, which it processes to customers’ exacting requirements for various applications, including polymers and rubbers, paints and coatings, lubricants, specialty ceramics, friction products, insulation, and other materials.

 

For nearly 130 years, Asbury has set an industry standard for meeting customers’ needs, providing flexible and innovative solutions, and investing in employees. The company operates 12 manufacturing locations across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and the Netherlands and has sales offices across North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit https://www.asbury.com/.

 

Contacts

Phone: +1 908.537.2155

Email: info@asbury.com

Categories
Culture Digital - AI & Apps Economics Lifestyle Technology

Bluesky plans to release a public web interface around the end of November and launch federation in early 2024, and says it crossed 2M users

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

 

 

—  Bluesky, the company building a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, announced Thursday,  it has hit 2 million users — up by another million since September, despite remaining an invite-only app.

 

It also revealed its timeframe regarding other key goals, indicating that it planned to have a public web interface go live by the end of the month and would launch federation by early next year.

 

The latter is one of the most important differentiating factors between Bluesky and X, as it would allow Bluesky to function as a more open social network.

 

This means it will work more like Mastodon where users can pick and choose which servers to join and move their accounts around at will. This is what Bluesky today says makes it “billionaire-proof” —  a swipe at Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, now called X.

 

“You’ll always have the freedom to choose (and to exit) instead of being held to the whims of private companies or black box algorithms,” a company blog post explained.

 

“And wherever you go, your friends and relationships will be there too,” it noted.

 

Similar to the decentralized service Mastodon, federation would anyone to run their own service and connect to any other service also running the same protocol. In Bluesky’s case, this would be done via the AT Protocol that the company is also developing alongside its consumer-facing service and mobile app. However, the other major decentralized social network, Mastodon, uses a well-established protocol, ActivityPub, which has gained greater traction in the months since Musk’s Twitter acquisition.

 

Since then, other companies including Mozilla, Flipboard, Medium, and Automattic (WordPress.com’s parent) have embraced ActivityPub and Mastodon. That could pose a challenge with regard to Bluesky’s eventual reach unless it makes a move to allow the AT Protocol and ActivityPub to somehow interoperate. Bridging the two may be technically possible, but it’s likely something that would take place further down the road, rather than in the near term.

 

In the meantime, Bluesky is working to make its own service more accessible, which includes launching a public web interface later this month. This will allow anyone to view the posts on Bluesky, even if they don’t have an account. That could make the network more promising in terms of being a true X rival for breaking news and conversations but could also expose Bluesky users’ posts to the outside world in ways they’re unprepared for. (The app doesn’t currently offer an option to set profiles to “private,” as Twitter/X does. Some users are not happyabout this).

 

Despite its growth, Bluesky’s hesitancy to drop its invite-only status and open its network to more users has allowed other X competitors to gain a foothold. Last month, for example, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his X alternative, Instagram Threads, has just under 100 million monthly active users. He believes it could reach a billion users in the next few years. And Threads intends to interoperate with ActivityPub in the future.

 

Bluesky’s announcement follows Threads’ rapid-fire release of features to make its app more competitive with X, including things like a chronological feed, support for viewing your likes, search, a (free) edit button, a web version, polls and GIF support, topic tags, and soon, a developer API. Mastodon has also capitalized on the opportunity Twitter’s acquisition presented, and launched an easier-to-use version of its service this September. But Mastodn currently has 1.6 million monthly active users, making it still much smaller than Threads.

 

Alongside today’s news, Bluesky also noted other recently launched features, including mobile push notifications, shareable user lists, email verification, advanced feed and thread preferences for sorting and filtering posts, a media tab on user profiles, a Likes tab on your own user profile, suggested follows, and various accessibility improvements.

 

Though Bluesky began its life as a Twitter project under Jack Dorsey, the company was spun out from Twitter with $13 million to get started on R&D. Dorsey sits on its board. This year, the company raised an $8 million seed round led by Neo to further its development, and converted from being a public benefit LLC to a public benefit C Corp.

 

 

— Techmeme

Categories
Business Culture Economics Government Lifestyle Local News Programs & Events

NJHMFA approves Foreclosure Intervention Program for residential properties

TRENTON, N.J. —  The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) approved the Residential Foreclosure Intervention Program (FIP) at its Oct. 19 board meeting.

The FIP will enable qualified non-profits to rehabilitate vacant or abandoned residential properties and sell them to low-, moderate-, or middle-income households.

“Vacant and abandoned homes are often purchased by institutional investors to rent back to the community or left to depreciate, adversely impacting neighboring properties,” said Executive Director Melanie R. Walter.

“This program is a testament to the state’s commitment to finding innovative solutions to difficult problems. Instead of allowing those to be the only two potential outcomes, we are going to rehabilitate these properties and get them back into the hands of residents as ownership opportunities.”

In conjunction with the Emergency Rescue Mortgage Assistance Program (ERMA), which has already delivered more than $110 million in relief to prevent foreclosures, the FIP is part of NJHMFA’s efforts to offer communities a wide range of solutions to combat foreclosure contagion and increase the stock of available homes for purchase by low-to-moderate income families.

The FIP is financed by fees collected during sheriff sales and supplemented with $25 million from the state’s allocation of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. From these funds, nonprofit community development organizations are eligible for up to $400,000 per property in grants to use for the acquisition and rehabilitation of single-family homes, townhomes, or condominiums.

After these properties are rehabilitated by nonprofit community development organizations, they will be sold to low-, moderate-, or middle-income households. To help these eligible families complete home purchases, NJHMFA offers up to $22,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance through its successful Down Payment Assistance (DPA) Program.

NJHMFA’s share of the proceeds will be deposited back into the Foreclosure Intervention Fund to ensure that the program grows with its successes. Grantee applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, with the program’s initial round of financing expected to benefit 60 properties.

Interested non-profits seeking to rehabilitate properties through the FIP are encouraged to visit https://www.nj.gov/dca/hmfa/consumers/nonprofits/ or reach out to FIP@njhmfa.gov for more information.

 

About Us: The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) advances the quality of life for residents of and communities throughout New Jersey by investing in, financing, and facilitating access to affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities for low and moderate-income families, older adults, and individuals with specialized housing needs. To learn more about NJHMFA, visit: https://NJHousing.gov/

Categories
Business Culture Economics International & World Lifestyle Perks Regulations & Security Technology

Alibaba and JD.com reported YoY sales increases for Singles Day, but this year also, neither company provided overall revenue figures

  • Analysts estimate the leaders chalked up single-digit gains
  • Newer platforms like PDD and Douyin may have far outpaced them

 

 

Sarah Zheng / Bloomberg:

 

—  China’s Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com reported sales increases for Singles’ Day, after the e-commerce giants offered steep discounts 

 

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. reported sales increases during China’s most important shopping festival, yet likely lagged newer entrants from social media platforms like ByteDance Ltd.’s     Douyin during a muted year for consumer spending.

Analysts scrambled for clues after China’s two e-commerce leaders again failed to disclose overall revenue numbers during Singles’ Day, the annual bargains extravaganza built around a Nov. 11 event that Alibaba popularized over a decade ago. Historically a barometer for Chinese consumer sentiment, it’s become much harder to parse since companies stopped providing precise figures during the turmoil of the Covid era.

 

Online transactions across the three largest platforms — Alibaba’s Tmall, JD.com’s main portal and PDD Holdings Inc.’s China-only Pinduoduo service — likely slipped about 1% to 923.5 billion yuan ($127 billion) during the festival, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ada Li estimated, calculating based on retail channel data tracked by Syntun. While a smaller piece of the pie, streaming platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou Technology grew transactions by 19%, according to Li’s analysis.

Others painted a slightly rosier picture. Alibaba and JD likely managed 1% to 3% growth in gross merchandise value over the three- to four-week period leading up to Nov. 11, when merchants embarked on their discounting spree, Goldman Sachs estimated. PDD, which targets lower-income and rural markets, racked up growth of 20%, analyst Ronald Keung estimated.

Alibaba and JD.com report earnings this week and should offer more insight into whether domestic consumption has recovered.

“The slowing growth shows we need to roll out large-scale economic stimulus measures that are strong enough to lift market confidence and drive up the economy,” Ren Zeping, a well-known economist who was formerly a researcher at the State Council’s Development Research Center, wrote Monday.

“Consumers are becoming more mature and rational as they go after high value for money. Their perception of brands is also changing, and domestic brands with high value for money are rising.”

 

 

Read more here:

Alibaba and JD.com reported YoY sales increases for Singles Day, but neither company provided overall revenue figures for the event for the second straight year

 

 

 

— Techmeme

Categories
Business Culture Economics Government Lifestyle Local News Programs & Events

Free educational forum supports Mercer County Small Business Bond program

Mercer County is encouraging small-business owners to attend an educational forum about the new Mercer County Small Business Investment Program on Monday, Nov. 13.

The program is helping small businesses raise funding directly through retail investors locally and nationwide on the SMBX marketplace.

The free event, supported by the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), will take place on Monday, at 9 a.m. at the College of New Jersey, Business Building Student Lounge, 200 Pennington Road in Ewing. A light breakfast will be served.

Mercer County awarded a $500,000 grant to SMBX to manage the program and drive retail investment to at least 30 Mercer County small businesses on the SMBX marketplace. The grant offset some of the lending fees for small businesses as they raise funds to grow their businesses.

Small-business owners can apply to raise funds through the Mercer County Office of Economic Development, SMBX, and the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Here’s how the program works:

  • Businesses can raise money by issuing Small Business Bonds on the SMBX marketplace.
  • Instead of borrowing from a bank, businesses borrow from investors in their community and across the country, paying them back monthly at fixed interest rates through SMBX.
  • Small businesses are not required to provide a personal loan guarantee.
  • SMBX completes the underwriting at no cost, the business reviews it, and SMBX files it with federal regulators.
  • The SMBX marketing team works with the business owners to offer and promote their raise.
  • Once the raise is completed, the business makes monthly fixed payments to its investors so it knows exactly what to expect for its cash flow.
  • By purchasing Small Business Bonds in $10 increments through the Mercer County Small Business Investment Program, investors can earn a meaningful monthly return by lending money to their favorite local small businesses while gaining more control over their money.

Small business qualifications:

  • Physical business located in Mercer County;
  • For-profit business registered with the State of New Jersey, and formed on or before April 10, 2023;
  • 30 or fewer employees, with part-time equating to ½ full-time employee;
  • Less than $10 million in gross revenue;
  • Preference is given to those businesses that have not received specific business grant assistance from the federal, state, or local government entity; and,
  • National franchises, real estate businesses, and independent consultants are ineligible.

The Mercer County Small Business Investment Program will run through September 2024.