A group of 18 U.S. property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance companies recorded $45.4 billion in net premiums written (NPW) during the nine-months ended 30 September 2018, according to a survey conducted by the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA).
This figure represents a $11.2 billion increase from this point last year, when NPW stood at $34.2 billion.
RAA reports that the combined ratio (CR) for the group was 98.2%, which resulted in a net underwriting loss of $385 million, a significant improvement on the 111.9% CR and $4.3 billion losses incurred by the group by this point last year.
Of the 18 P.C reinsurers, Everest Re recorded the highest CR with 112.6%
The company had announced previously that it was expecting Q3 pre-tax catastrophe losses of approximately $240 million, net of reinsurance.
The estimate included Q3 losses from hurricane Florence, California wildfires, typhoon Jebi, typhoon Trami and Japan floods.
While 2018 has by no means been a benign catastrophe year for the reinsurance industry, it has proved significantly quieter than last year, when hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as other notable Q3 events, inflicted record-breaking losses.
Reinsurance News discussed last year how the performance of the group of reinsurers tracked by RAA, which includes subsidiaries of global reinsurance firms, had declined through the first nine months of 2017 as the softened landscape persisted.
This year’s CR for the group is attributable to a 72.5% loss ratio and an expense ratio of 25.7%.
Meanwhile, policyholders’ surplus was $180.2 billion, an increase from $170.5 billion in the prior quarter.
Net investment income for the group increased year-on-year by roughly $1.8 billion to $7.9 billion in 2018.
The result of all the above is a net gain of $8.3 billion for the group for the first nine months of 2018, compared with a net loss of $493 million for the same period in 2017.
