Significant capital losses in the fourth quarter of 2008 will cause property-casualty insurers to raise prices, prompting a hard market by the middle of the year, security analysts at Sandler O'Neill banking predicted today.
The analysts' report said p-c insurers suffered from losses as high as 20 percent in their investment portfolios in 2008, but that on a price-to-book ratio many p-c insurers are trading at levels not seen since the 1970s.
Back then, interest rates were much higher, noted the analysis by Paul Newsome, a managing director, and Edward Shields, associate director, at Sandler O'Neill in Chicago.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
