Switzerland's biggest insurer saw premiums for life insurance policies as well as from U.S. business fall in the first nine months. By contrast, it gained in property and casualty business.
The coronavirus-induced economic crisis as well as the damages incurred by the pandemic scarred Zurich Insurance's nine-month report: premiums from life policies fell eight percent to $2.57 billion, the Swiss company said in a statement on Thursday. The business snapped back in the third quarter, Zurich said, with a seven percent rise.
Premiums in its U.S.-based business, Farmers, edged three percent lower to $15.3 billion. The fall was mainly due to $311 million in rebates to customers due to Covid-19, and lower-than-forecast premiums from ride-sharing services. Farmers offers insurance to Uber drivers in 29 states.
«Growth in our commercial business has remained strong with further improvement in commercial pricing and underlying underwriting performance,» finance chief George Quinn said. Claims from policyholders stemming from the pandemic stand at 450 million, related to COVID-19, when stripping out reduced frequency of claims, which is unchanged from mid-year.
