P-C return on capital plummets to 3.9 percent. (property and casualty insurance industry)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, January, 1995

Pummeled by catastrophes, the property-casualty insurance industry saw its rate of return on capital decline from 10.6 percent in 1993 to 3.9 percent in 1994, according to a joint report by the Insurance Information Institute and Standard & Poor's. [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] The Jan. 17, 1994, earthquake in Northridge, Calif.

was the major factor in the drop, according to Sean Mooney, senior vice president and economist of the New York-based I.I.I., and author of the monthly "Financial Insights" column in National Underwriter. The Northridge earthquake's cost is currently put at $9 billion and the total catastrophe bill for 1994 is about $13 billion, which makes it the second worst year on record. The worst year was 1992, which had a catastrophe bill of $23...

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