Prudential Parent Disqualified From Commercial Paper

Bloomberg reports:

Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, lost eligibility for the U.S. commercial paper program after a downgrade by Fitch Ratings, reducing the company’s access to short-term debt markets.

“We no longer have the ability to borrow funds from the Commercial Paper Funding Facility” through the holding company, said Bob DeFillippo, a spokesman for the Newark, New Jersey- based insurer in an interview today. “The company’s liquidity requirements are not dependent on the access to the commercial paper market or to debt capital markets,” he said.

Prudential has an insurance unit that still qualifies, he said. The holding company has about $375 million outstanding to the program that must be repaid by the end of April, said DeFillippo.

You'll want to read this one.