This episode of A.M. BestTV looks at A.M. Best Co.'s annual rankings of the world's largest insurers, and once again, France-based Axa and Japan Post maintain the top spots, by 2012 net premiums written and 2012 non-banking assets respectively. Japan Post, a unit of the government-owned Japanese postal system, held onto the top spot despite being the only insurer among the top five to show a decline in non-banking assets. Japan Post and Axa have held the respective top spots since A.M. Best began its annual survey in 2011. Senior Associate Editor Fran Lysiak said an interesting note to this year's rankings is on the net premiums written side, where for the first time, U.S.-based Prudential Financial joined the top 10, boosted significantly by two pension risk-transfer transactions. On the non-banking assets side - Prudential Financial also recorded the largest percentage increase in assets among the top 5, with a 14.4% rise. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=largestinsurers114 to view the video program.

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A.M. Best Co.
Jim Peavy, 908-439-2200, ext. 5644
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