More pain ahead on insurance prices; St. Paul-Travelers deal reduces competition; merger wave seen.(News)($16 bn merger between St. Paul Cos. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp.)

Crain's New York Business, November, 2003

Byline: jacqueline s. gold Last week's $16 billion merger deal between St. Paul Cos. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp. is likely to further limit insurance availability here, and push costs higher than their already-stratospheric levels. In recent months, brokers were starting to see the first signs of a thaw in the ice-hard commercial insurance market that emerged with full force after the Sept.

11 terrorist attack. The elimination of a major competitor is likely to reverse that softening trend. "There are so few companies that can provide specialty insurance,'' says Owen Ryan, Deloitte's global managing partner of insurance services. "There used to be 15 property/casualty underwriters. Now, there are only a handful in the New York area.'' Both...

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