E&S/Specialty

Insurers are less inclined to use prior-year reserves to mask losses, according to a financial analysts latest report.

The Risk Management Solutions Version 11 catastrophe model is shifting rates higher, and causing some risks to move from the admitted market back to excess and surplus lines carriers, but a leader of a managing general agent group cited concerns with the models impact on how insurers underwrite risks.

Insurer Catlin Group Ltd reported a 12 percent rise in gross premiums written during the first quarter, helped by growth across its international operations and the absence of catastrophe losses.

Florida has effectively agreed to abide by federal-flood-agency rules that bar new development in flood plains without prior federal approval.

Markel Corp. indicates talk of a hard market may be premature because insurers are not exhibiting the same underwriting discipline for new business as they are for renewals.

Property and casualty insurers added 2,000 jobs in March, a month that is typically favorable for P&C employment, according to Insurance Information Institute President Robert Hartwig.