Mr. Angel Mas:

Our regulatory regimes in every country demand that every underwriting entity is subject to specific regulations, specific capital, and needs to be stand-alone. For instance, our underwriting entities in Canada today have a single A plus rating. Our underwriting entities in Australia have a single A plus rating. As the Senator knows, the rating is related to the holding company and the debt service calculation.

That is why we believe the correct regime for Ireland would not be so much based on ratings but subject to Central Bank scrutiny and approval on the basis of who is the underwriting entity, what capital it has, what claims payment ability it has. In our case in Europe, we do not have debt. Any rating is associated with debt payment capabilities is technically from a rating perspective correct but wrong from the standpoint of assessing the certainty of payment for our insurance.