Premiums were up, but profitability was down for U.S. reinsurers in the first half of 2008, according to the latest consolidated underwriting results released by the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA).
Through June 30, the RAA reported policyholders' surplus of $72.8 billion for a group of 20 U.S. propertycasualty reinsurers, down 5.8 percent compared to $77.3 billion for the same period in 2007.
The group wrote $12.7 billion of net premiums, up 4 percent compared to the $12.2 billion written in the same period a year ago.
However, through June 30, the combined ratio for the group was 97.5, deteriorating 7.5 points from the 90.0 combined ratio for the same period in 2007.
The combined ratio is attributable to a 68.0 loss ratio and an expense ratio of 29.5, RAA noted For the same period in 2007, the loss ratio was 62.8, while the expense ratio was 27.2.
For more information on the report, go to the Washington-based RAA's Web site at HYPERLINK "http://www.reinsurance.org" http://www.reinsurance.org.
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