Personal Lines

Moody's Investors Service lowered the financial strength rating and credit ratings of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. citing continued weakness in earnings and investment losses.

Insurer associations disagreed today on the extent of insurer assessment increases contained in the New York State budget agreed upon over the weekend.

Property-casualty insurers in the United Kingdom are more optimistic about rates increasing and the future of their operations than three months ago and plan to hire additional workers, according to a consulting firm study.

NU readers answering our first online poll agreed recent clashes between Washington and AIG make federal insurance regulation more likely. This week's poll asks if AIG will be able to repay its bailout funding. Respond at www.property-casualty.com.

Insurance trade organizations said they were successful in fending off proposals to further increase assessments on carriers as part of the proposed New York State budget that state leaders agreed on over the weekend.

Editor In Chief Sam Friedman asks whether carriers and their producers ethically required to help regulators make personal lines insurance widely available. Go to his blog at www.NUSamSoapbox.com

Establishing a national regulator responsible for overseeing solvency and insurance pricing and products would help fix the "critical shortcomings" in the property-casualty insurance industry's current state-based regulatory structure, a report says.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's cautious statements of support for an optional federal charter for insurers is provoking reactions pro and con from property-casualty insurance company trade groups.