Chubb CEO hails rate improvements

Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg has hailed rate improvements as the insurer presented its first quarter 2018 results.

“Commercial P&C pricing for the business we wrote in the quarter continued to improve in the US and a number of territories outside the US,” Greenberg said.

“We achieved some of the best pricing in quite some time, and it improved as we moved through the quarter. In some classes, customer segments and territories we are observing a clear direction in price firming; in others it’s more chaotic,” Greenberg noted.

Chubb grew P&C net premiums written by 5.8 percent year on year to $6.5 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

Net income remained unchanged at $1.1 billion compared the same period a year ago.

At the same time, underwriting income in P&C deteriorated 18.1 percent year on year to $642 million. Excluding catastrophe losses, P&C current accident year underwriting income was up 7.2 percent at $813 million.

“We had a very good quarter though it was impacted by a higher level of catastrophe losses,” Greenberg said. “We produced world-class ex-CAT underwriting results, strong net investment income and good premium revenue growth while achieving better commercial P&C pricing in many of our businesses globally, which improved as the quarter went along, particularly in the US,” he added.

“Concentrated in two areas where we have meaningful presence –Montecito, California with the mudslides and the Northeast US – the catastrophe losses this quarter were up $175 million pre-tax over prior year.”

Total pre-tax catastrophe losses were $380 million in the first quarter of 2018 compared with $206 million in the same period a year ago.

The P&C combined ratio was 90.1 percent compared with 87.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Excluding catastrophe losses, the P&C current accident year combined ratio was 87.6 percent compared with 88.0 percent in the same period of 2016.

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