QBE’s US reinsurance operations were among the winners in a generally improved year for the industry in 2009.

New figures from the Reinsurance Association of America show QBE Reinsurance Group (consisting of QBE Reinsurance Corp, QBE Insurance Corp and QBE Specialty Co) made a $US3.4 million ($3.7 million) profit from reinsurance last year, compared with a $US19.7 million ($21.4 million) loss in 2008.

Across the industry, net profit rose 33% to $US4.29 billion ($4.65 billion), attributable to the recovery of investment markets and lower natural catastrophe experiences.

Gross written premium was up 29% for QBE Re at $US1.75 billion ($1.9 billion) against 1% for the industry.

QBE Re’s combined ratio improved to 99.3% from 109.2% while for the industry the figure was 93.5%, down from 101.8%.

Credit Suisse analyst Arjan van Veen says QBE’s American numbers, already reported as part of the group’s inward reinsurance result for 2009, reflected a very benign year for US hurricanes.

But first-quarter results for this year may well reflect a different story.

“So far in the first quarter we’ve had European windstorm Xynthia which was probably not written out of the US but they may have some exposure there; they definitely would have had exposure to the Chile earthquake,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“At a conference in the US last week, [insurer] Allstate mentioned that the claims experience was pretty bad across 49 of the 52 states due to the cold snap.”