Liberty Mutual reports net loss in second quarter

Liberty Mutual reports net loss in second quarter | Insurance Business Asia

Insurance News

Liberty Mutual reports net loss in second quarter

Results feel impact of elevated catastrophes

Insurance News

By
Mika Pangilinan

Liberty Mutual Insurance has released its second quarter results, reporting a net loss of $585 million.

This is higher than the $343 million net loss experienced by the insurer during the same quarter in 2022, driven in part by catastrophe losses that totalled $2.27 billion.

President and CEO Tim Sweeney said the elevated catastrophe losses were due to widespread wind and hail events in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.

Sweeney also stated that rate and underwriting action has been taken to address “inflationary pressures in personal lines felt across the industry.”

As a result, Liberty Mutual saw a 4.7-point improvement in the underlying loss ratio of its Global Retail Markets (GRM) business.

Similarly, the underlying loss ratio of the Global Risk Solutions (GRS) business improved by 0.4 points.

Total net written premium came out to $11.83 billion, compared to $11.82 in the same quarter last year.

The insurer also had a total combined ratio of 109.4 % versus 105.6 % in Q2 2022.

Commenting further on Liberty Mutuals’ financial performance, Sweeney emphasised recent announcements about organisational and leadership changes aimed at “enhancing focus on long-term strategic markets, while better leveraging scale advantages to drive target profitability and sustainable success.”

In particular, he pointed to agreements to divest GRM West operations in Europe and Latin America, as well as GRS Liberty Specialty Markets direct insurance business operations in Brazil, Chile, and Colombia.

“This allows us to elevate our US-focused personal and small commercial business into a standalone business unit, called US Retail Markets or USRM and consolidate our international operations under one umbrella in Global Risk Solutions,” Sweeney said.

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