ACE's Finite Probe To Wrap Up In A Month

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, April 27, 4:28 p.m. EST?ACE Limited Chief Executive Evan Greenberg said his company's comprehensive internal probe into use of finite reinsurance products should be completed in about a month, emphasizing that the investigation so far has failed to uncover any major misconduct.[@@]

"To date what we are seeing is that [ACE finite reinsurance] transactions generally were structured in a way intended to provide appropriate risk transfers and were accounted for properly," Mr. Greenberg said.

"We are looking at all of the documentations, including all e-mail correspondents, etc. that might surround any of these transactions. So we are looking at every fricking corner."

ACE will continue to discuss these matters with various regulators whose investigations are still ongoing, he noted. Mr. Greenberg offered his comments today during an analyst conference call to discuss ACE 2005 first-quarter results.

The ACE chief executive also defended his company's sale of finite products. The Bermuda-headquartered global insurer continues to offer them to clients through its U.S. and Bermuda offices despite the heightened scrutiny by investigators.

Such products have drawn a focus because, when they are not structured to properly transfer risk they are in violation of FASB rules and can provide an improper picture of company finances.

"We are still writing finite. It continues to generate income and revenue. But it's very slow as you can imagine," Mr. Greenberg said. "We continue to believe these products will have an appropriate place in managing risks."

Regarding ACE quarterly results, Mr. Greenberg praised his company's latest figures. "As you can see we had a very good quarter," he told analysts.

The Hamilton, Bermuda-headquartered ACE, one of the largest global property-casualty insurers, posted $433 million in net income, down from $447 million one year. ago. But the insurer said it reached a new record level on an operating-income basis, which excludes net realized gains and losses. The first-quarter operating income was $441 million, up from $411 million one year ago. ACE's underwriting income fell a little but the loss was made up by higher investment income.

"Our North American operations experienced good growth in the quarter, primarily driven by our risk management, crop insurance, workers comp, medical malpractice, and international risk businesses," Mr. Greenberg said. Most other classes, however, particularly excess casualty, directors-and-officers coverage, and property, were flat to down.

The overall underwriting income for the quarter fell to $311 million, down from $336 million one year ago. The p-c combined ratio for the quarter was 89.2, deteriorating slightly from 88.4. The results also included some $30 million of investigation-related expenses, Mr. Greenberg said.

Net written premiums came in at $3.365 billion, increasing from $3.238 billion one year ago but the insurer observed that written premium growth has been slowing in line with softening prices. Among business segments, only North American insurance units saw its net premiums written grow, to $1.425 billion from $1.212 billion. Other segments--overseas general insurance, global reinsurance and financial services--also saw their net premiums written decline.

"Earned premium growth was strong while net premium growth slowed in line with market conditions. The market continues to soften," Mr. Greenberg told analysts. "Premium revenues in a number of our businesses were flat to down. We simply refuse to chase under-priced business."

Ace said net investment income improved to $284 million, up from $238 million last year. However, ACE suffered $4 million net realized losses, in contrast to $57 million gain last year, which hurt ACE's net income figure this year.

Commenting on current prices, Mr. Greenberg said that globally property insurance rates continue to fall an average of 10-to-20 percent. Casualty pricing, including directors-and-officers and errors-and-omissions, is off between zero and 10 percent on an exposure-adjusted basis, with greater rate pressures in U.K. and Europe.

Brian Meredith, insurance analyst at Banc of America Securities, said ACE operating results were in line with his estimate. Mr. Meredith observed that while ACE's underwriting margins remained strong, top-line growth fell below expectations. "Competition is continuing and new business growth is challenging," he said.

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ACE's Finite Probe To Wrap Up In A Month

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