NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) March 10, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it placed its counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (FFH), FFH's operating insurance companies (collectively, Fairfax), and Crum&Forster Holdings Corp. (Crum&Forster) on CreditWatch with positive implications. "The CreditWatch is based on strong earnings in 2007, and we expect 2008 to be another strong year," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst Damien Magarelli. Fairfax exhibited strong and improved underwriting and a combined ratio of 94% in 2007. Investment results in 2007 were very strong, due to significant increased net investment gains related to credit default swaps (CDS) of $1.1 billion, which Fairfax sold for proceeds of $199
