“Personal lines performance is driven by substantial improvements in our homeowners' loss ratio- with and without catastrophes,” states STFC president and CEO Bob Restreppo in a statement.

He says, “Loss cost trends have improved and prices are up around 20 percent. Personal auto profitability is below expectations, but we see positive underlying trends.” He adds that loss costs are flat and prices are up by almost 6 percent in the quarter.

Overall net premiums written for the second quarter of 2013 increased by 5.8 percent compared to the same time period in 2012.

From the second quarter of 2012, improved pricing helped net written premiums for personal insurance grow by 0.4 percent. Business insurance net written premiums grew by 10.5 percent, aided by a higher average new business premium, renewal pricing and economic recovery; and the 9.9 percent net premium increase in specialty insurance was due to growth in STFC's Excess & Surplus P&C units.

“Business insurance profitability improved due to normal catastrophes and lower ex-catastrophe loss ratios,” says Restreppo. “Property, liability and commercial multi-peril results showed solid improvement.”

Year-to-date net written premiums in 2013 increased 3.0 percent compared to the same period in 2012.

Six-month net written premiums for 2013 increased by 0.9 percent and 12.5 percent for personal and business insurance segments, respectively, but declined by 5.7 percent in specialty insurance compared to the first six months of last year. The decline was due to the termination of several written programs in a former unit.