KPMG: EXECS LESS BULLISH ON PREMIUM GROWTH:

KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, conducted a real-time survey at its 16th annual insurance industry conference held Sept. 27-28. Even before the full impact of the recent hurricane activity was known, the majority of the 150 senior insurance executives surveyed were less optimistic about premium growth and the industry’s ability to increase margins, according to KPMG. While most of the competition was still seen from domestic insurers (51 percent), survey results demonstrated that there was an expectation that competition from international financial-service companies will increase (24 percent). Only 57 percent of the executives surveyed indicated they expect their firms to perform above expectations in the next 12 months, as compared to 70 percent a year ago. The survey also found that the number of executives who indicated that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had the greatest impact on the way they do business increased to 83 percent, up from 58 percent last year. Reflecting the sharpening of underwriting over the past two years, the number of executives indicating that underwriting was the most important factor in future growth declined to 26 percent from 32 percent a year ago.

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