Canadian reinsurers’ 2006 income highest in past four years

Canadian reinsurers in 2006 collectively posted their highest net income in the past four years, according to data collected by the Reinsurance Research Council (RRC).The RRC data was presented by a panelist speaking at a Property Casualty Underwriter Club (PCUC) luncheon meeting in Toronto.In a presentation to the PCUC luncheon, Aon Re Canada Inc. senior vice president John Kartechner noted the Canadian reinsurance industry posted a 2006 income of Cdn$483.2 million. The combined operating ratio (COR) last year for Canadas reinsurance segment was 86.8%.In contrast, in 2005, which featured record storm damage in Ontario and the explosion at the Suncor oil refinery in Alberta, the reinsurance industry had a net income of Cdn$239.7 million and a COR of 102.98%If you take that Cdn$1-billion [Suncor] loss out of 2005, all of the reinsurers would have been smiling, Kartechener said. But even 2005 is not a bad year.In 2003, the Canadian reinsurance industry reported an income of Cdn$310 million, according to the RRC figures, and the COR was 96.3% The numbers were similar for 2004, with RRC results showing the industry reporting a Cdn$376 million income and a 92.4% COR.The Canadian reinsurers werent doing that well up to 2001, Kartechner noted, showing a slide of a sad face turning into a happy face under the headline The Changing Face of Canadian Reinsurance.The [2006] numbers are very, very, very good, he said. 2006 had been an exceptional year.