The effects of recent hurricanes combined with the troubled financial markets could lead to a hardening market, according to a Swiss Re official.

Brian Gray, chief underwriting officer of Swiss Re, offered the assessment of the market as the reinsurer announced its expected losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. "The combination of this year's natural catastrophe activity, along with investment market performance, is likely to accelerate the ending of the soft market," he said.

Swiss Re announced it expects losses from Ike to be approximately $250 million, while the total from Gustav is expected to be about $50 million.

Industrywide, Swiss Re said Hurricane Ike is expected to cause around $7-to-$14 billion in insured losses, while Hurricane Gustav insured losses are estimated at $2.5-to-$4 billion.

ISO's Property Claims Services (PCS) unit has put Hurricane Gustav preliminary insured property damage estimates at $1.8 billion for Louisiana. Gary Kerney, assistant vice president of PCS, said, "The current PCS estimate notes a total of 245,000 claims in Louisiana. These include 180,000 personal, 35,000 commercial and 30,000 vehicles."

He added that PCS is still compiling data for Hurricane Ike and will likely have an estimate sometime next week.