This past week saw multiple industry-related quotes out ofWashington, as well as multiple quotes on cyber issues.

Experts also weighed in on Progressive's Q2 results, and a PC360interview with Aspen Insurance Holdings' CEO yielded someinteresting thoughts on the importance of growth in a changingreinsurance marketplace.

See the top quotes of the week below and on the followingpages.

Progressive Corp. saw its Q2 profit fall9.6% as investment gains narrowed, Bloomberg reports, butSandler O'Neill & Partners analyst PaulNewsome also believes the innovations that drovepremium growth for Progressive in the past have not been thererecently.

Newsome: “The biggest issue is that they reallyhaven't had a major change in the last decade. It's really about 10years ago when they had really rapid premium growth.”

A bill advanced in the Senate would allow companies and the U.S.government to share information about hacking threats, offeringlegal protections for those operating critical computer systemswhen they share such hacking threats with each other and thegovernment, Bloomberg reports.

Privacy advocates worry the plan could enable the NationalSecurity Agency to collect information about innocentAmericans.

Bank of America Corp., Visa Inc. and other companies operatingcritical U.S. computer systems would be given legal protections forsharing hacking threats with each other and the government under abill backed July 8 by the Senate's Intelligence Committee.

In opposing the bill, Democratic SenatorsRon Wyden of Oregon and MarkUdall of Colorado said in a statement, “We haveseen how the federal government has exploited loopholes to collectAmericans' private information in the name of security. Withoutthese protections in place, private companies will rightly seeparticipation as bad for business.”

Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., continues his push to gain more information on the process theFinancial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) uses to determinewhether non-banks should be designated systemically importantfinancial institutions (SIFIs).

Garrett wrote a letter to the New York Federal Reserve Bankasking it to provide information on the process, and he hassupported recent bills designed to delay the FSOC's authority todesignate SIFIs and expand access to and participation in theFSOC's meetings.

In supporting one of the bills, Garrett said: “Thecouncil meets in secret, refuses to disclose substantivetranscripts, and blocks any requests by other regulators or Membersof Congress for a more open and transparent process.”

As the reinsurance sector comes under continued pressure fromalternative capital, companies pursue strategies to cope. A MayNomura report says reinsurers may need to merge to gain the sizeand scale needed to survive.

Speaking to PC360, Aspen CEOChris O'Kane says growth is important, but notgrowth at all costs.

O'Kane: “There probably aren't many boards of companieswho say our ambition is to get smaller.” He adds, though, “You haveto stick to your knitting.

“We're specialty insurance and reinsurance. If [a classof risk] is in our competency and skill set, we'll take a look atit, and if we think we can make money from doing it, we'll do it.And there's a certain growth rate you can get with thatdisposition, but I think it would be a great mistake to say, 'Wehave to bulk up, we need to get more scale so let's go and dosomething that's completely foreign and unknown.'”

Cyber crime is a rising threat for cargo and freight.Keith Lewis, vice president of operations atCargoNet, explains how cargo thieves create fake identities through theInternet, and set up fake websites, invoices and insurancecertificates:

“They'll pose as a legitimate carrier, or they'll set upa fraudulent company. Or they'll go back and find a company thatwent out of business—their certificate is still out there on theInternet, all they have to do is reactivate it. For a few hundredbucks, I can get an MC number and be a truckingcompany.”