London-based (re)insurers reported diminishing returns for the first half of the year, pressured by soft pricing conditions and narrow underwriting margins.
London-based carriers posted a worse underwriting result for the first half of the year, as lower contributions from reserve releases, elevated core loss ratios and higher expense ratios depressed margins.
London carriers posted an 8.4 percent expansion in gross written premium (GWP) in the first half of the year as the group's combined top line reached $4.6bn, using five-year average exchange rates.
Legacy-to-live carrier Enstar reported a second quarter pre-tax profit of $111.3mn, more than double the result generated in the same period of last year.
Bermuda-based carriers generated high single-digit operating returns on equity (RoE) in the second quarter of the year as a benign level of cat losses allowed underwriting margins to widen.
The absence of major catastrophes allowed second quarter underwriting margins to improve in Bermuda from the previous year, when heavy cat losses severely dented results.
