(Bloomberg) -- Alan Schnitzer, the new chief executiveofficer of insurer TravelersCos., called on U.S. lawmakers to reduce corporate taxes orrisk harming business in country.

“We continue to see the U.S. corporate income tax rate — thehighest of any industrialized nation — as encouraging insurers toshift capital offshore, ultimately harming the U.S.economy,” Schnitzer said Friday in his first annual letter asCEO of the New York-based insurer. “Ensuring that U.S. companiesremain competitive should be a priority for Congress.”

The remarks build on the case by his predecessor Jay Fishman,who led Travelers since the late 1990s and stepped down in December because of hishealth. Fishman lamented in September that Bermuda hasbecome the favored destinations for insurance startups over thepast 15 years. The acquisition this year of Warren, NewJersey-based Chubb Corp. by Switzerland’s Ace Ltd.marked another shift in the U.S. industry.

Money managers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BlackRockInc. have helped support insurance startups offshore in recentyears. Ace, which took the name Chubb Ltd. after its transaction,started in Bermuda during the 1980s and now has a market value ofmore than $55 billion. XL Group Plc also began with operations onthe island, and the insurer is now based in Ireland and worth morethan $10 billion.

International markets

Schnitzer said the U.S. remains an ideal market in which to sellinsurance, given economic instability in other parts of the world.The company has made deals in recent years to expand in Brazil andCanada, and the new CEO said Travelers will proceed “thoughtfullyand deliberately” in pursuing transactions. Rival AmericanInternational Group Inc. is retreating in some non-U.S. marketsincluding Honduras andGuatemala.

Fishman is the insurer’s executive chairman and stepped down asCEO after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,or ALS. He led Travelers when it was still a part of CitigroupInc., departed in 2001 to oversee St. Paul Cos., then engineered amore than $17 billion merger with Travelers, which had been spunoff from the bank. Schnitzer joined Travelers in 2007 as chieflegal officer and was later named to oversee internationaloperations and business insurance. He became CEO in December.

“Jay’s legacy is far more than a decade of success in thebooks,” Schnitzer said in the letter to shareholders. “It’s also aculture that will enable us to achieve the next decade ofsuccess.”

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