French reinsurer Scor has reported a net income of Euro278m ($410m) for the first nine months of the year, compared with Euro280m in the same period last year. Gross written premiums in life and non-life combined were Euro4.883bn, up from Euro4.325bn, with non-life premiums rising to Euro2.53bn from Euro2.37bn. The combined ratio improved to 97.4%, from 99.2% in the first nine months of 2008. However, the net return on investments declined to 2.1% from 3.0%, "driven mainly by a cautious asset management strategy". Natural catastrophe losses made up 5.3 points of the loss ratio, with hailstorms in Austria and Switzerland (cost of Euro16m pre-tax) being the main Q3 event. Other nat cat losses in the quarter cost Euro18m. Scor Global Life (SGL), now as significant part of the company's operations as the non-life division, reported a year-to-date operating margin of 5.2% on premiums up 20.4% year on year. US equity-indexed annuity (EIA) business has experienced a surge in demand, but produces a lower operating margin than other SGL business. Excluding the US EIA business, the year-to-date operating margin would be 6.5%. Scor is bullish on January 2010 renewal rates compared with the predictions of its rival Swiss Re. The French company said that the recent economic crisis has had more of an economic impact on the capital of insurers than on reinsurers, and as a result expected "the demand for capacity to remain high in the face of a relatively stable offer from reinsurers".

... has closed the first nine months of the year with net income of $78.6m, an increase of 88% that reflected the more than doubling of net earned premiums to $621.5m from $226.8m, which in turn stemmed from the acquisitions of CastlePoint Holdings and Hermitage Insurance Group in early 2009. Commission and fee income dropped by 67% to $34.1m, while the combined ratio rose to 85.9% from 82.4%.

A trend for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is beginning to emerge in the insurance and reinsurance industries, according to a Q3 report from reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. Report authors Norman Brown and Bart Zanelli, both managing directors at GC Securities, claimed that "M&A is expected to accelerate next year and particularly in 2011". The authors said that the restoration of capital would facilitate a growing trend for M&As that began in 2005. Guy Carpenter's Global Reinsurance Composite showed an 8.2% increase in aggregate shareholders' equity by June 30 2009, compared with the start of the year. Cash positions have increased far more dramatically, up 316% during the year to about $7.9bn. Guy Carpenter said that in 2010 "excess and surplus, specialty managing general agents and other specialty lines companies are seen as quite attractive, because they fill voids in product suits or platforms". The report noted that much had changed in the past year, with the industry emerging from "coping with capital constraints and weathering the fierce conditions of the financial crisis" into an era of "seeking new routes to growth". The broker warned that insurers and reinsurers could face the option of either acquiring and growing, or being acquired.

The Geneva Association, which represents some 80 insurers and reinsurers globally, has asked the G20 ahead of its meeting in Scotland to refrain from imposing "overly prudent" capital requirements on the industry. In a six-point letter signed by the Association's president Nikolaus von Bomhard and Secretary General Patrick Liedtke, the letter notes that the business model and characteristics of the (re) insurance industry "fundamentally differ from those of the banking sector and it is vital that future regulatory proposals should appropriately distinguish between the two sectors". The letter also noted that macro-prudential supervision was necessary and said that the (re)insurance sector should be "appropriately represented" on macro-supervisory boards. The Association warned, however, that "the temptation to establish a list of so-called 'systemically relevant institutions' could paradoxically make the whole system riskier". The Association called for supervision of the whole industry rather than just the big players. Finally, the Association supported the G20's call for a more globally consistent supervisory and regulatory framework, "to ensure a level playing field and to avoid regulatory arbitrage".