The FINANCIAL -- A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating to B- (Fair) from B (Fair) and issuer credit rating to "bb-" from "bb" of Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company (Farmers' Mutual) (Traverse City, MI). The outlook for both ratings is negative.

The FINANCIAL -- comScore, Inc. on August 11 released a study of the online health insurance industry, which showed the effects of increasing U.S. unemployment on online consumer activity.

The FINANCIAL -- Standard Life on August 11 announced a mid year review of its UK with-profits final bonus rates. Due to the continuing poor returns from investment markets many plan values will be lower than a year ago. However, many customers will benefit from payout guarantees and the smoothing that we are applying to maturity and retirement payouts. All annual bonus rates have been maintained.

The FINANCIAL -- American International Group, Inc. (“AIG”) on August 12 announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell 100 percent of its shares of AIG Finance (Hong Kong) Limited (“AIG Finance”) to China Construction Bank Asia for $70 million in cash, subject to typical closing adjustments, plus the repayment of intra-group indebtedness and deposits of approximately US$557 million.

The FINANCIAL -- AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIGFP), an AIG company (AIG), reported on August 11 that it has completed the sale of its energy and infrastructure investment assets, realizing aggregate net proceeds in excess of $1.9 billion.