Mr. Hartwig's comments came in the wake of a letter to Congressional leaders from the American Insurance Association (AIA) and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), which told lawmakers the p-c industry is "competitive, well capitalized and able to respond to policyholder needs, as we have demonstrated in the past, when a competitor of any size leaves the market."

Their letter was issued in response to an American International Group document sent to the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board. In the document, AIG sought to justify additional aid by arguing that the company continues to pose a systemic risk. AIA and PCI said if AIG were allowed to fail the p-c sector would remain strong.

Mr. Hartwig, in his presentation, said p-c insurers earned $2.4 billion in net income after taxes in 2008, turning a profit despite the market turmoil and recession.

Still, he noted that figure is down 96.2 percent from the $62.5 billion profit in net income after taxes for 2007. Mr. Hartwig said the poor investment environment and higher losses on insurance operations driven by $26 billion in insured catastrophe losses were to blame.

The catastrophe losses, Mr. Hartwig said, are the fourth-highest total ever.

Insurers responded not only to Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008, Mr. Hartwig said, but to 35 other catastrophes, including tornadoes, wildfires, and wind and hail storms. All of those disasters resulted in insured losses totaling at least $25 million, Mr. Hartwig noted.

He said 9 of the 12 costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, as defined by insured losses, have occurred since 2004, and he stressed the importance of p-c insurers maintaining a sizable policyholders' surplus.