Financing Cash Flows Financing cash flows consist primarily of borrowings and repayments of debt, repurchase of common stock, and dividends paid to stockholders. During 2019, we purchased and retired $433.1 million aggregate liquidation/principal amount of our outstanding capital and debt securities, including debt repurchase costs of $25.9 million for a total cash outflow of $459.0 million. During 2018, our $200.0 million 7.00% senior unsecured notes matured. During 2017, we purchased and retired the remaining $3.4 million of principal on our senior secured floating rate notes acquired through our purchase of Starmount. During each of the years 2019, 2018, and 2017 we made principal payments of $60.0 million on our senior secured non- recourse notes issued by Northwind Holdings. During 2019, we issued $450.0 million of 4.50% senior notes due 2049 and $400.0 million of 4.00% senior notes due 2029 and received total proceeds of $841.9 million. During 2018, we issued $300.0 million of 6.25% junior subordinated notes due 2058 and received total proceeds of $290.7 million. Cash used to repurchase shares of Unum Group's common stock during 2019, 2018, and 2017 was $400.3 million, $356.2 million, and $401.8 million, respectively. During 2019, 2018, and 2017 we paid dividends of $229.2 million, $215.6 million, and $196.0 million, respectively, to holders of Unum Group's common stock. See "Debt" contained herein in this Item 7, and Notes 8 and 10 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 8 for further information. AM Best, Fitch, Moody's, and S&P are among the third parties that assign issuer credit ratings to Unum Group and financial strength ratings to our insurance subsidiaries. We compete based in part on the financial strength ratings provided by rating agencies. A downgrade of our financial strength ratings can be expected to adversely affect us and could potentially, among other things, adversely affect our relationships with distributors of our products and services and retention of our sales force, negatively impact persistency and new sales, particularly large case group sales and individual sales, and generally adversely affect our ability to compete. A downgrade in the issuer credit rating assigned to Unum Group can be expected to adversely affect our cost of capital or our ability to raise additional capital. The table below reflects the outlook as well as the issuer credit ratings for Unum Group and the financial strength ratings for each of our traditional insurance subsidiaries as of the date of this filing.  We maintain an ongoing dialogue with the four rating agencies that evaluate us in order to inform them of progress we are making regarding our strategic objectives and financial plans as well as other pertinent issues. A significant component of our NR = not rated AM Best Fitch Moody's S&P Outlook Stable Negative Stable Stable Issuer Credit Ratings bbb BBB Baa2 BBB Financial Strength Ratings Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company A A A2 A Provident Life and Casualty Insurance Company A A NR NR Unum Life Insurance Company of America A A A2 A First Unum Life Insurance Company A A A2 A Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company A A A2 A The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company A A A2 A Starmount Life Insurance Company A- NR NR NR Unum Insurance Company A- A A2 NR Unum Limited NR NR NR A- 88 Ratings