CNA Q4’22 earnings call

CNA Insurance hosted its Q4 2022 earnings call on Feb 6, 2023. The highlights:

• Core income increased by $9 million in the fourth quarter to $274 million
• P&C operations produced core income of $342 million down only slightly compared to last year, even with cat losses nearly twice as large in the fourth quarter of this year compared to last year
• All-in combined ratio was 93.7%, an increase of only 0.8 points compared to the prior year quarter with pretax catastrophe losses of $76 million or 3.6 points of the combined ratio compared to $40 million or 2 points in the prior year period
• P&C expense ratio for the fourth quarter was 31.1%, which is a slight increase compared to last fourth quarter’s expense ratio of 30.8%
• The increase of 0.3 points was driven by higher underwriting expenses, including continued investments in technology, analytics and talent partially offset by net earned premium growth and lower acquisition expenses
• In Commercial segment, favorable development in workers’ compensation was partially offset by unfavorable development in general liability and commercial auto
• Less new business from significantly fewer IPOs and M&A opportunities in the quarter compared to the same period last year impacted CNA’s D&O line and program growth