Moody’s drops AXA Equitable, AXA Financial

Moody's Investors Service said it downgraded AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co.’s insurance financial strength rating to A1 from Aa3, affirmed MONY Life Insurance Co. of America’s insurance financial strength rating at A1 and downgraded AXA Financial Inc.’s senior unsecured debt rating to Baa1 from A2.

The follows AXA SA’s May 10 announcement that it intends to pursue a partial IPO of its U.S. life business.

The outlooks of AXA Equitable, MONY and AXA Financial were changed to negative from stable.

Moody’s said the downgrade of AXA Equitable and AXA Financial reflects the diminished implicit support from AXA. Because AXA has so far only announced its intentions and because it still intends to hold a majority of the AXA U.S. business after the partial IPO, at least initially, the agency said it retained one notch of parental support from AXA Equitable's A2 standalone credit profile.

The affirmation of MONY reflects its A2 standalone credit profile as well as the same one-notch of implicit support, Moody’s added.

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