While some narrowing of the current government backstop on terror coverage remains possible, it now looks more likely that TRIA will be renewed in some form, insurer trade groups suggested last week.

Following two weeks of disappointment over Treasury's June 30 report, and urgent statements delivered in the wake of London terror blasts underscoring the need for TRIA renewal, the groups saw a change in tone from the Bush administration when Treasury Secretary John Snow testified at Congressional hearings.

The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, in a report to members prepared after the House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, said Sec. Snow's “verbal testimony today and response[s] to questions [were] extremely conciliatory and almost completely at odds with the utterances of Treasury officials in the past two weeks, at least in tone. “