U.S. reinsurers face rising loss ratio

The loss ratio for U.S. reinsurers rose by 6% year-on-year to 85.7% for the six months ended June of this, according to the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA). The RAA’s latest quarterly survey, which is based on the financial returns of 30 companies, pegs the industry’s combined ratio for the first six months of this year at 115.6% compared with the 112.2% recorded for the same period in 2000.The RAA reinsurers generated about US$13.5 billion in net written premiums for the latest six-month reporting period, showing modest improvement on the US$12.3 billion written to the end of June 2000. Net earnings for the first six months of this year fell by 11.5% to US$485 million, largely as a result of declining realized capital gains. Net realized gains for the latest reporting period clocked in at US$281 million against the US$341 million produced for the first half of 2000. The rise in the loss ratio is partly attributed to the cost of catastrophic events such as tropical storm Allison.