Given the size of the catastrophes, ACE “had an excellent quarter,” says Evan G. Greenberg, ACE's chairman and chief executive officer, during a conference call.

In the benefits area Greenberg says payrolls are showing growth, but the growth is “anemic.”

Insurance rates are increasing, he notes, by single- and double-digits in some lines. However, the increases are not broad-based. Greenberg says that casualty rates are “bouncing along the bottom.”

Property and casualty net premiums written increased 15 percent compared to the 2010 second quarter.

ACE increased its earnings guidance for the full year for 2011 with after-tax operating income now expected to be in the range between $6 and $6.20 per share.

“We are quite bullish about the second half of the year,” says Greenberg. “We are well-positioned to capitalize on a modestly improving commercial p & c environment,” he says in a statement.

The guidance includes $544 million in after-tax catastrophe losses for the first half of the year and an additional $200 million in catastrophe losses for the balance of the year.

For the first six months of the year, net income has dropped 40 percent, or $566 million, to $866 million. Net premiums written rose 6 percent to $7.4 billion. The combined ratio for the first half of the year is 98.4, up 7.2 points.