Survey finds drop in US reinsurers’ net income for first nine months of 2008

A group of 20 U.S. property-casualty reinsurers reported a net income of US$2.7 billion for the first nine months of 2008, marking a drop from the US$5.3 billion reported in the same period of 2007, according to a Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) survey.The combined ratio for the group was 104.2% in the first nine months of 2008, deteriorating from the 94.1% combined ratio reported for the same period of last year, an RAA release says. The combined ratio is attributable to a 75% loss ratio and an expense ratio of 29.2%, the release continues.The group wrote US$19 billion of net premiums during the nine-months ended Sept. 30, 2008, marking an increase of US$1.1 billion from the same period of 2007.However, in the first nine months of 2007, the group reported a net underwriting gain of US$1.18 billion, which deteriorated to a net underwriting loss of US$1.02 billion in the same period of this year.Investment income for the period also dropped from US$5.1 billion in 2007 to US$4.51 billion in the first nine months of 2008, the RAA’s underwriting report says.