The 23 re/insurers who make up the membership of the Association of Bermuda Insurers (ABIR) and Reinsurers last year wrote $61 billion in gross premiums and racked up combined earnings of $12.4 billion.

The capital and surplus base of the group rocketed by more than 30 percent last year to $84 billion.

When measured by gross premium the six largest ABIR members are: Ace Ltd., XL Capital Ltd., Partner Re Ltd., Catlin Group Ltd., Arch Capital Group Ltd. and Axis Capital Holdings Ltd.

The ABIR survey shows that gross written premiums have remained flat for the group over the past three years, rising from $59 billion in 2007 to $61 billion in 2008, and then remaining unchanged last year.

Although Bermuda is known as a leading reinsurance centre, some 59 percent of the gross premiums written were in the insurance sector.

The figures show the global impact of the Bermuda market. ABIR members, which include 16 of the top 35 global reinsurers as measured by AM Best, wrote approximately 18 percent of the global reinsurance premium (2008); and is estimated to write 40 percent of the property catastrophe reinsurance premium for European (broker) and US insurance markets.

The ABIR member groups write about 30 percent of the Lloyd's of London premium. The companies write primarily wholesale commercial property and casualty insurance and reinsurance.

Underwriting operations were profitable, as the group achieved a combined ratio of 85 percent - meaning that 85 cents of each premium dollar was spent on claims and expenses.

Last year's strong recovery year for (re)insurers everywhere was reflected in the ABIR results.

Capital and surplus grew 33 percent ($63 billion to $84 billion) from 2008 to 2009. When removing the anomalous results from the 2008 financial crises, capital and surplus can be viewed as growing 16 percent ($73 billion to $84 billion) from 2007 to 2009.

Results in 2008 were impacted by the combination of a plunge in asset values triggered by the world financical crisis and a high level of catastrophe losses, especially related to hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

The group made a net loss of $125 million in 2008. Last year net income was up eight percent ($11.5 billion to $12.4 billion) when compared to 2007.

When measured by capital and surplus, the six largest ABIR members are: Ace Ltd., XL Capital Ltd., Partner Re Ltd., Axis Capital Ltd., Arch Capital Group Limited and Validus Holdings Limited.

Ace Ltd., whose holding company is in Switzerland, was the biggest writer of gross premium in the group, with $19.2 billion, while XL Capital had the next biggest re/insurance sales with $6.7 billion.

ABIR members employed (at year-end 2008) 31,000 people worldwide including 1,800 in Bermuda, 16,000 in the US and more than 7,000 in Europe.