US insurers speaking at the Standard & Poor’s insurance conference were upbeat about their prospects, but analysts who spoke cited insurers’ lax pricing and reserving, poor accounting and “disregard of policyholders’ interests” as issues that haven’t been addressed. The analysts also noted the life insurers’ investment follies and their questionable motives for demutualisations.

Typical of the critics was Morgan Stanley MD Alice Schroeder, who said the commercial lines sector “will exhort itself to maintain pricing discipline” in the current environment of sharp premium-rate increases. “But it’s never going to happen,” she said. “When premium rates become adequate and companies start to build capital, they begin to compete on price again.”

Insurance regulators aren’t equipped to intervene effectively, said publisher David Schiff. “People assume regulators know what’s going on, but the fact is they’re underfunded, they don’t usually have the best people, their salaries are much less and they don’t have the ability to keep up with the companies they’re keeping an eye on.”