XL Group yesterday announced the completion of its parent company's redomestication to Ireland from the Cayman Islands.

The holding company will subsequently be named XL Group plc and XL will continue to be registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and will be subject to SEC reporting requirements.

Shares of XL will trade on the New York Stock Exchange and its main executive offices will be located at No.1 Hatch Street Upper, 4th Floor, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Meanwhile Fitch Ratings has affirmed the insurer financial strength ratings of XL Group and its property/casualty re/insurance subsidiaries at A.

The rating outlook has been revised to stable from negative.

The outlook revision reflects the company's improvement in capitalisation, reduced financial leverage, lower investment risk and stabilisation of its competitive position.

Partially offsetting these positives are anticipated challenges in a competitive property/casualty market rate environment and the potential drag from the remaining run-off life business.

XL's capital position has improved with GAAP shareholders' equity up 64 percent since year-end 2008 to $10 billion at March 31, 2010, following a significant 39 percent decline in 2008. The increase was driven by improvement in the company's net unrealised loss investment position to $700 million at March 31, 2010 from $3.4 billion at December 31, 2008.

Furthermore, XL's insurance company capitalisation improved, with overall operating leverage of 0.6 times in 2009, compared to one times in 2008.

XL has also demonstrated reduced volatility from its investment portfolio as the company effectively completed the de-risking and repositioning of its investment portfolio to one that supports a focused property/casualty operation, according to Fitch.

To this end, XL further reduced its exposure to commercial mortgage-backed securities, non-agency US residential mortgage-backed securities and corporate portfolio holdings by $4 billion in 2009, through maturities, paydowns and opportunistic sales, following a $3.5 billion reduction in 2008, with the company reinvesting in government and government related holdings, high quality corporates, municipals and agency mortgage-backed securities.