Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said that St. Paul Travelers Insurance Company has promised to cut back on the number of commercial customers it had planned to nonrenew in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Donelon addressed the New Orleans City Council yesterday and later told NU Online News Service that the St. Paul-based company will renew business representing about 60 percent of the $3 billion coverage it writes in catastrophe-prone areas of the state, while leaving the rest to seek new insurers.

The company had previously announced plans to nonrenew about 80 percent of its affected coverage.

Travelers represents about 15 percent of the state's commercial coverage and has the largest market share.

The company's cutbacks are in line with the percentage of what other commercial insurers are proposing to cut back, Mr. Donelon said.

Among the hardest hit classes of business trying to find insurance are restaurants, mini-storage units and retail, he said.

The insurer of last resort, Citizens Insurance Corp., has just raised its commercial limits from $2 million to $5 million.

“And from reports I have been hearing in the field from some of the agents, some of the surplus lines markets have been picking up some policies,” added Mr. Donelon.

The commissioner also said he planned to seek abolition of the Louisiana Rating Commission to be replaced by a file and use system in the state for regulating personal lines rates.

The legislature recently enacted a flex band rating system that gives carriers leeway within a certain percentage band to raise or lower personal lines rates without prior regulatory approval.

As a former member of the state House of Representatives, Mr. Donelon introduced a measure to abolish the rating commission, but the governor at the time vetoed it.

“I think it is time now to send the message that we are not about politics anymore in Louisiana in our rebuild, and this will be a very positive message when we succeed in repealing the last in the land rating commission,” he said.

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Travelers To Keep More Louisiana Commercial Risk

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