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ING Groep NV, the financial-services firm that got a 10 billion-euro ($12.6 billion) lifeline from the Netherlands last month, said write-downs amounted to 1.51 billion euros in the third quarter and may extend through year end.    The third-quarter loss, the first since the company was created in 1991, was 478 million euros, or 22… Continue reading ING Posts Losses for Third Quarter

New York-based Standard & Poor’s Corp. (S&P) reported that property/casualty insurers’ expense growth outpaced their premium growth in 2007. Furthermore, the gap is not expected to close this year as net written premium growth remains relatively flat. According to the report, as a result of soft market conditions, net written premiums increased only 1.3% in… Continue reading S&P: P&C Expenses Outpace Premium Growth for ’07

Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group on Wednesday reported net income of $6 million and $666 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2008, respectively, compared to $404 million and $1.093 billion in the same periods in 2007. “Given the circumstances, we are pleased with our results in the third quarter,” said Edmund F.… Continue reading Liberty Mutual Reports Third-Quarter Results, Took $800M Cat Loss

According to a new Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) survey, teens who get less than eight hours of sleep per night on average are twice as likely to say they have fallen asleep at the wheel (20 percent) than are teens who report getting an average of eight or more hours… Continue reading Teen Study: Not Enough Sleep Increases Driving Risk

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) released a new study of auto and home insurance information provided on state insurance department websites. The study, State Insurance Department Websites: A Consumer Assessment, found considerable differences in the usefulness of information such as the rates and practices of individual insurance companies. State insurance department websites in 6… Continue reading CFA Study Shows Which State Insurance Departments Disseminate Info

Today Toll Brothers report that home-building cancellations rose and traffic fell to record lows as the financial crisis worsened in the latest quarter.     “Unfortunately, the preliminary signs of stability we had discussed in early September … were upended by the past month’s financial crisis,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Toll, said in… Continue reading Toll Brothers Reports Rising Cancellations in Home-Building

Helping push the tally for the world’s biggest financial firms toward the trillion-dollar mark, American International Group Inc.’s (AIG) losses from the collapsing mortgage market account for almost half the $123.6 billion inflicted on North American insurers. AIG, which posted a record third-quarter loss yesterday, accounts for $60.9 billion of the write-downs and credit losses.… Continue reading AIG Tops Mortgage Insurers in Credit Losses

Following similar moves by the nation’s biggest banks, mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Citigroup Inc. plan to cut home-loan payments for hundreds of thousands of borrowers facing foreclosures. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will reduce principal or interest rates on some loans and extend the terms of others, people briefed on the… Continue reading Mortgage Companies, Including Citigroup, Work to Stem Foreclosures

In response to the restructured federal program announced Monday morning to help beleaguered American International Group Inc. (AIG), the major rating agencies responded by either affirming their ratings of the insurer or maintaining reviews. A.M. Best Co. Inc. affirmed its A financial strength ratings for most of AIG’s insurance subsidiaries while assigning them a negative… Continue reading Following Revised Government Plan with AIG, Rating Agencies React

The largest provider of funding for U.S. residential mortgages, Fannie Mae, reported on Monday that it lost a record $29 billion in the third quarter as the company wrote down a tax-related asset that has its buoyed capital. The quarterly loss is the fifth consecutive for the Washington-based mortgage finance company that has been operating… Continue reading Fannie Mae Posts A Record $29B Loss for Third Quarter