St. Paul’s plans global overhaul; retains Canadian specialty lines

U.S.-based St. Paul will undergo a major overhaul as the company plans to exit certain lines of business, including medical malpractice, and to exit countries where “the company is not likely to achieve competitive scale”.Canada will, however, not be among those countries. St. Paul will continue to operate its specialty commercial property-liability business. The U.K, Ireland and St. Paul’s Mexican surety operations will also continue, but other countries will not.St. Paul International, under which these operations exist, is forecasted to show an underwriting loss of about US$100 million this year.St. Paul also plans to exit several of its lines at Lloyd’s, including casualty insurance and reinsurance, U.S. surplus lines and some non-marine reinsurance. It will continue its aviation, marine, property, kidnap and ransom, accident and health, creditor and other personal specialty products. The expected underwriting loss for St. Paul’s Lloyd’s operations for 2001 is US$150 million.The company’s reinsurance operations will be scaled back, and its medical malpractice business, which is forecasted to hit an underwriting loss of US$940 million this year, will be exited completely on a global basis.