The top 25 U.S. reinsurers took down loss reserves related to prior accident years for the third consecutive calendar year in 2010, recording favorable development of nearly $1.7 billion, according to a NU analysis.

As I was finishing a feature about merger-and-acquisition activity in the insurance industry last month, a Bloomberg news item caught my eye.

For U.S. coastal property business, “the market’s capital has felt ‘three Katrinas,’” according to experts at a reinsurance broker, which previously speculated it would take three Katrina-sized events to push up reinsurance prices.

As one property and casualty industry report points to rising combined ratios for insurers, with experts citing the need for better underwriting results, a separate analysis of first-quarter industry figures indicates the commercial-lines market may be starting to turn.

Who were the alternative suitors for Transatlantic Holdings, Inc.—the reinsurer that agreed to merge with specialty insurer Allied World Assurance Company Holdings AG last Sunday? I make a few guesses.

Who were the alternative suitors for Transatlantic Holdings, Inc.—the reinsurer that agreed to merge with specialty insurer Allied World Assurance Company Holdings AG last Sunday? I make a few guesses.

In spite of the fact that commercial renewal prices continued to fall in the first quarter, a composite pricing index based on reports from 1,200 risk managers shows that prices are still 15 percent higher than at year-end 2000.

For the CEO of Crum & Forster, Doug Libby, who voluntarily describes himself as “a contrarian,” there is little not to like about the $294 million deal, closed in February, that adds First Mercury Financial Corp. to his group’s specialty-insurance operations.