Personal-lines insurers priced risks a bit more competitively in April, with rates climbing by 3 percent year-over-year compared to 4 percent in March, according to MarketScouts latest market barometer.

Property and Casualty carriers added 900 jobs in March -- a month that saw employment shrink in most other sectors of the insurance industry, according to an analysis of the latest figures from the U.S. Labor Departments Bureau of Labor Statistics.

XL Groups 2013 first-quarter net income nearly doubled compared to the same period a year ago as operating income soared thanks to lower levels of large losses.

Swiss Re says its 2013 first-quarter net income climbed to $1.4 billion, compared to $1.1 billion for the same period a year ago, with improvements in the groups property and casualty reinsurance business acting as a key driver for the results.

Swiss Re says its 2013 first-quarter net income climbed to $1.4 billion, compared to $1.1 billion for the same period a year ago, with improvements in the groups property and casualty reinsurance business acting as a key driver for the results.

RenaissanceRe reports 2013 first-quarter net income fell to $190.5 million compared to $201.4 million for the same period a year ago, as decreases in underwriting income, written premiums and investment income offset an improvement in weather and energy risk-management operations.

An atmosphere of pessimism has taken hold of the downstream energy-insurance market after two poor underwriting years, and while capacity has not been impacted yet, one or two exits by leading insurers could trigger a wider withdrawal, a new report says.

Superstorm Sandy may have put a dent in the insurance industrys reversal of fortunes after a catastrophe-filled 2011, but commercial-property pricing may not increase as much as one might expect after the second-most damaging named storm to hit the U.S., a new report says.