Floods in Australia are expected to impact results starting off in 2011. Although the company did not suffer major catastrophe losses at the end of 2010 due to winter storms in the United States, together with the first round of flooding in Australia, a second round of flooding in Australia is expected to cause some losses.

The preliminary loss estimate for the Australia flooding is between $75 million and $100 million. Total projected losses for the industry due to the Australian floods are between $5 billion and $10 billion, a Chubb spokesman said.

Chubb's Chief Operating Officer John Degnan reported that net written premiums in personal lines were up 4 percent and the combined ratio in the segment was 85.4 compared to 81.6 in 2009. Homeowners and automobile insurance premiums were up 2 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Commercial lines premiums were relatively flat and renewal rates were down 1 percent.

“Overall, market conditions in the third quarter were largely unchanged from the first half," Degnan stated to a National Underwriter P&C reporter in a January 28th article. He went on to tell the reporter, "We continue to see competitive pressure on rates. But on the other hand, the repercussions of poor economic conditions continue to abate slightly, and we had some improvement in exposures and endorsement activity."

Considering Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s plan to go after failed banks, Mr. Degnan told National Underwriter that Chubb has “not yet seen significant claims activity in the community bank arena to date.” Chubb’s exposure to community banks’ errors and omissions portion of a policy “is not thought at the moment by us to be significant."