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Text: chubb.com for more information on factors that could affect these matters.
First, we have Evan Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; followed by Peter Enns, our Chief Financial Officer.
As you saw from the numbers, Chubb had an outstanding quarter, highlighted by record operating earnings and underwriting results, expanded margins and double-digit premium revenue growth globally, the best in over 15 years, powered by commercial P&C and supported by continued robust commercial P&C rate movement.
Chubb was built for these conditions.
We have averaged double-digit commercial P&C growth over the past 10 quarters.
The breadth of our product and reach, combined with our execution-oriented underwriting culture and our reputation for service and consistency enable us to fully capitalize on opportunity globally.
And conditions such as these size and scale are our friend.
Core operating income in the quarter was $1.62 billion or $3.62 per share, again, both records.
On both the reported and current accident year ex-cat basis, underwriting results in the quarter were simply world-class.
The published P&C combined ratio was 85.5% and current accident year was 85.4% compared to 87.4% prior year.
The two percentage points of margin improvement were almost entirely loss ratio related.
Current accident year underwriting income of $1.2 billion was up 27%.
While on the other side of the balance sheet, adjusted net investment income of $945 million, also a record, was up nearly 9.5% from prior year.
Peter will have more to say about cats and prior period development, investment income and book value.
Turning to growth and the rate environment.
P&C premiums were up 15.5% globally, with commercial premiums, excluding agriculture, up nearly 21%.
The 15.5% growth for the quarter and 12.6% for the first six months were the strongest growth we have seen since 2004.
Growth in the quarter was extremely broad-based, with contributions from virtually all commercial P&C businesses globally, from those serving large companies, to midsized and small and most regions of the world and distribution channels.
We continue to experience a needed and robust commercial P&C pricing environment in most all important regions of the world, with continued year-on-year improvement in rate to exposure on the business we wrote, both new and renewal.
Based on what we see today, I'm confident these conditions will continue.
In North America, Commercial P&C net premiums grew over 16%.
New business was up 24%, and renewal retention remained strong at 96.5% on a premium basis.
In our North America major accounts and specialty commercial business, net premiums grew over 13%, with each division, major accounts, Westchester and Bermuda having its largest quarter in history in terms of written business.
And the standout was our middle market and small commercial division, which had the biggest quarter in about 20 years, driven by record new business growth and strong retentions.
Overall rates increased in North America commercial by a strong 13.5%, which is on top of a 14.7% rate increase last year for the same business, making the two-year cumulative increase over 30%.
And remember, in North America, rates have been rising for almost four years.
However, they have exceeded loss costs for only about two years now.
Loss costs are currently trending about 5.5% and vary up or down depending upon line of business.
General commercial lines loss costs for short-tail classes are trending around 4%, while long-tail loss costs, excluding comp, are trending about 6%.
Let me give you a better sense of the rate increase movement by division and line in North America.
In major accounts, rates increased in the quarter by about 16% on top of almost 18% prior year for the same business, making the two-year cumulative increase over 36%.
Risk management-related primary casualty rates were up almost 9%.
General casualty rates were up 21% and varied by category of casualty.
Property rates were up nearly 12% and financial lines rates were up almost 20%.
In our E&S wholesale business, the cumulative two-year rate increase was 39%, comprised of an increase of circa 18% this quarter on top of 18% prior year second quarter.
Property rates were up about 16.5%.
Casualty was up about 21%, and financial lines rates were up over 21%.
In our middle market business, rates increased in the quarter over 9.5% on top of over 9% last year, making the two-year cumulative increase 20%.
Rates for property were up over 10.5%.
Casualty rates were up 11%, excluding workers' comp, and comp rates were down at about 0.5%.
Financial Lines rates were up over 17.5% in our middle market business.
Turning to our international general insurance operations.
Commercial P&C premiums grew an astonishing 33% on a published basis or 24% in constant dollars.
International retail commercial grew 27% and our London wholesale business grew 60%.
Retail commercial P&C growth varied by region, with premiums up 36.5% in our European division, with equally strong growth in both the U.K. and on the continent.
Asia Pacific was up over 29%, while our Latin America commercial lines business grew over 14.5%.
Internationally, like in the U.S., in those markets where we grew, we continued to achieve improved rate to exposure across our commercial portfolio.
In our international retail commercial P&C business, the two-year cumulative rate increase was 35% comprised of increases this quarter and prior year of 16% each.
Two territories in particular, the U.K. and Australia, stand out in terms of rate achievement.
In our U.K. business, rates increased in the quarter by 18%, on top of a 26% rate increase prior year for the same business, making the two-year cumulative increase 48%.
In Australia, the two-year cumulative rate was 42%, comprised of an increase of 23% this quarter, on top of 16% prior year.
In our London wholesale business, rates increased in the quarter by 13%, on top of a 20% rate increase prior year, so making the two-year cumulative 36%.
International markets began firming later than the U.S. And again, like with the U.S., rates has exceeded loss costs for about two years now.
Outside the U.S., loss costs are currently trending 3%, so that varies by class of business and country.
Consumer lines growth globally in the quarter continued to recover from the pandemic's effects on consumer-related activities.
Our international consumer business grew 13% in the quarter, and that's on a published basis.
It grew 5% in constant dollars.
Breaking that down for you, international personal lines grew 20% on a published basis, while our international A&H grew 6.5%, but it was essentially flat in constant dollar.
Within our A&H book, a nascent recovery in our leisure travel business outside of Asia is beginning to result in growth, although passenger travel activity is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
In both our group A&H business, with its employer-based benefits and our consumer-focused direct marketing business, premiums were up mid-single digits, still impacted by the pandemic but beginning to improve.
Net premiums in our North America high net worth personal lines business were up over 2.5%.
Nonrenewals in California and COVID auto-related renewal credits had almost one point of negative impact on growth in the quarter.
Our network client segment, the heart of our business, grew almost 8% in the quarter.
Overall retention remains strong at over 94%.
And we achieved positive pricing, which includes rate and exposure of 13% in our homeowners portfolio.
Loss cost inflation in homeowners is currently running about 11%.
Lastly, in our Asia-focused international life insurance business, net premiums plus deposits, were up 55% in the quarter, while net premiums in our Global Re business grew up -- grew over 32%.
In sum, we continue to capitalize on a hard or firming market for commercial P&C in most areas of the world.
Both growth and margin expansion are two trends that I am confident will continue.
Our organization is firing on all cylinders.
We're growing our business and our exposures, and we continue to expand our margins.
Our leadership employees are energized and driven to win.
I am confident in our ability to outperform and deliver strong, sustainable shareholder value.
I'm excited to be in my new position and build upon all that he has achieved -- all he has achieved under his leadership, and I'm honored to be leading the very strong team he has built going forward.
Turning to our results.
We completed the quarter in an excellent financial position and continue to build upon our balance sheet strength.
We have over $75 billion in capital and a AA-rated portfolio of cash and invested assets that now exceeds $123 billion.
Our record underwriting and investment performance produced strong positive operating cash flow of $3.1 billion for the quarter.
Among the capital-related actions in the quarter, we returned $2.3 billion to shareholders, including $1.9 billion in share repurchases and $352 million in dividends.
Through the six months ended June 30, we returned $3.1 billion, including $2.4 billion in share repurchases and dividends of $704 million.
We recently announced a onetime incremental share repurchase program of up to $5 billion through June 2022.
As Evan said, adjusted pre-tax net investment income for the quarter was a record $945 million, higher than our estimated range, benefiting from increased corporate bond call activity and higher private equity distributions.
We increased the size of our investment portfolio by $2.4 billion in the quarter after buybacks due to strong operating cash flow and high portfolio returns, including $694 million in pre-tax unrealized gains from falling interest rates.
At June 30, our investment portfolio remained in an unrealized gain position of $3.3 billion after tax.
During this challenging investment return environment, we will remain consistent and conservative in our investment strategy and do not expect to materially adjust the portfolio asset allocation over the near term.
We will be selective but active, and we'll continue to focus on risk-adjusted returns and we will not reach for yields.
There are a number of factors that impact the variability in investment income, including the amount of operating cash flow available to invest, the reinvestment rate environment and the assumed prepayment speeds on our corporate bond calls and variability around private equity distributions.
Based on the current interest rate environment and a normalization of bond calls and private equity distributions, we continue to expect our quarterly run rate to be approximately $900 million.
Our annualized core operating ROE and core operating return on tangible equity were 11.5% and 17.7%, respectively, for the quarter.
And as a reminder, we continue to present the fair value mark on our private equity funds outside of core operating income as realized gains and losses instead of net investment income as other companies do.
The gain from the fair value mark this quarter of $712 million after tax, we have increased core operating ROE by five percentage points to 16.5% and core operating income by $1.59 per share to $5.21.
Book and tangible book value per share increased by 4.2% and 5%, respectively, from the first quarter due to record core operating income and realized and unrealized gains of $1.4 billion after tax in our investment portfolio, which again primarily came from declining rates and mark-to-market gains on private equities.
The increase in book value per share also reflects the impact of returning over $2 billion to shareholders in the quarter.
Our pre-tax P&C net catastrophe losses for the quarter were $280 million, principally from severe U.S. weather-related events.
There was no overall change to our aggregate COVID-19 loss estimate.
We had favorable prior period development in the quarter of $268 million.
This included a charge from molestation claims of $68 million pre-tax compared with $259 million in the prior year.
Excluding this charge, we had favorable prior period development in the quarter of $336 million pre-tax, split approximately 30% in long-tail lines, principally from accident years 2017 and prior and 70% short-tail lines.
For the quarter, our net loss reserves increased $1.1 billion in constant dollars and our paid-to-incurred ratio was 80%.
Our core operating effective tax rate was 15.8% for the quarter, which is within our expected range of 15% to 17% for the year.

user
compname reports strong second quarter net income per share of $5.06 and record core operating income per share of $3.62.
consolidated net premiums written up 14.3% globally, with commercial p&c lines up 19.9%; best organic p&c growth in over 15 years.
q2 core operating earnings per share $3.62.
qtrly p&c combined ratio was 85.5% compared with 112.3% prior year.
qtrly pre-tax catastrophe losses, net of reinsurance and including reinstatement premiums was $280 million.
p&c net premiums written were up 15.5% globally for quarter.

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