In December 2024, in an effort to enter the rapidly growing private credit market, Fitch Ratings (Fitch) published a markets research report—U.S. Insurers and Private Credit: Not All Private Ratings Are the Same—taking aim at smaller rating agencies. The Fitch report relied on data from a report that had been published and subsequently retracted months earlier by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Fitch’s report claimed that private credit issuers and investors, particularly insurance companies, have fallen victim to ratings inflation perpetrated by smaller rating agencies and instead would be best served using Fitch as a ratings provider. The agency recently doubled down on that view when it republished the same report on May 19, 2025.
Fitch’s data was based on the NAIC Securities Valuation Office’s (SVO) withdrawn report. The SVO report and findings were based on a sample of 109 securities (out of a total 8,152 privately rated securities held by insurance…