Moreover, he said, the most remarkable finding of a recent market survey done by CFA is that the insurance industry is more strongly capitalized now than it was before Sept. 11. "This is surely a victory of capitalism over terrorism," Mr. Hunter said.

Travis Plunkett, CFA's legislative director, noted that in the effort to lobby Congress to enact federal legislation, the insurance industry presented a "doomsday scenario" suggesting, among other things, that banks would no longer loan money to owners of skyscrapers.

But the CFA survey found, he said, that banks are lending money to most businesses and there are no widespread economic problems related to terrorism insurance in the country today.

Mr. Hunter added that losses arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist event will be far less than predicted. He said that some in the industry predicted that losses would be as high as $70 billion.

However, Mr. Hunter quoted the New York State Insurance Department as estimating that losses from the World Trade Center attack will be about $35 billion, which Mr. Hunter said is actually $23 billion after taxes.

This still represents the largest dollar hit ever taken by the insurance industry, Mr. Hunter conceded. However, as a percentage of industry surplus, it is not much worse than Hurricane Andrew, he noted. (While the World Trade Center loss will be 7.2 percent of industry surplus, he said, the Hurricane Andrew loss was 6.3 percent of surplus.)

While insurance rates are increasing, Mr. Hunter said, they are generally due to a classic hard market cycle. The Sept. 11 event sped up the cycle, he said, but did not cause it.

The biggest issue in the market, he said, is that some businesses are having trouble getting sufficient terrorism insurance similar to the levels of previous years. However, he added, there are alternatives in the marketplace, including self-insurance, layering, setting up captives, and securitization.

Mr. Plunkett said that Congress can provide another alternative by expanding the Liability Risk Retention Act to cover property insurance. But he said that Congress should not rush into enacting legislation. While the insurance industry has tried to create a problem, he said, there is no crisis that requires immediate action.

Mr. Hunter also disputed suggestions made by some industry representatives that terrorism is inherently unpredictable and thus uninsurable. It might be unpredictable, he said, but it is more manageable than hurricane risk, and thus easier to insure. Indeed, Mr. Hunter noted, President George W. Bush is enjoying high approval ratings because he has done a good job of managing terrorism.