US property cat industry suffers biggest underwriting loss since 2002

Rating agency AM Best has said that the US property catastrophe industry has deteriorated sharply during 2011, suffering its largest underwriting loss since 2002.

The agency blames this decline on huge catastrophe losses throughout last year, which then led to poor underwriting results. Those losses, both in the US and abroad, were more than double those reported in 2010, according to the agency.

As a result, the agency expects all three segments (personal lines, commercial lines and US reinsurers) to report relatively large underwriting losses and policyholders’ surplus is ‘anticipated to decline modestly and return measures are expected to be in the low single digits.'