Bermuda-based Axis Capital, which closed its retail insurance operations in Australia last October, says full-year net global income fell 22% to $US601.56 million ($851 million) following a “challenging year on many fronts”.

Gross written premium dropped 2.3% to $US4.6 billion ($6.5 billion) last year, and the combined operating ratio deteriorated to 94.7% from 91.6% in 2014.

Net investment income was down 11% to $US305 million ($431 million).

President and CEO Albert Benchimol says last year “was also a year of powerful maturation across our organisation, resulting in a stronger, more focused Axis”.

“Over the course of the year we steered the company towards a future of enhanced profitability and stability,” Mr Benchimol said.

“Importantly, we are executing on the right actions for the current challenging market conditions – improving the quality of our book of business, growing the scale and profitability of recent initiatives, and tightening expense control and capital efficiency.”