Northbridge Financial Corporation (NFBC) reported a 2.8% increase in gross premiums written in 2024. These reached US$2.5 billion, an increase of US$69 million compared with the gross premiums written in 2024.
These results appear in the press release issued by Fairfax Financial Holdings, which published these quarterly results and the consolidated annual balance sheet on Feb. 13.
Since 2022, Fairfax has no longer provided results in Canadian currency. In addition, the company no longer discloses the underwriting income for its various general insurance subsidiaries, and no longer discloses the operating income for NFBC.
Premiums
Northbridge's gross premiums written amounted to US$614 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is a decrease of US$10 million, or 1.6%, compared with reported gross premiums written for the same period a year earlier.
Net premiums written decreased by 0.8% in the last quarter of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, and totalled US$553 million.
For the full year, net premiums written totalled $2.2 billion in 2024. This is an increase of US$81 million or 3.2% over 2023.
Combined ratio
NFBC's combined ratio stood at 83.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024. This is a difference of 8.2 percentage points compared to the combined ratio of 91.5% recorded in the last quarter of 2023.
For the full year, NFBC's combined ratio stood at 89.3% in 2024. This is a difference of 1.8 percentage points compared with the combined ratio of 91.1% recorded in 2023.
As was the case in 2023, Northbridge's combined ratio in 2024 is lower than that of Fairfax's other North American general insurance subsidiaries, and is also lower than the combined ratio of all of its general insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries.
Fairfax results
For all its North American subsidiaries, Fairfax's insurance earnings were US$1.1 billion in 2024, compared with US$977 million in 2023.
With premium volume exceeding US$32.8 billion in general insurance and reinsurance in 2024, an increase of 13% over 2023, Fairfax's insurance service result totaled US$4.6 billion in 2024.
Net earnings attributable to Fairfax shareholders of non-controlling interests totaled US$3.9 billion in 2024, down 12% from US$4.4 billion in 2023.
In 2024, losses related to hurricanes Milton and Helene, which occurred over a two-week period in early autumn in the southeastern United States, amounted to US$409.3 million for Fairfax.
In Canada, catastrophe losses during the summer of 2024 (Calgary hailstorm, flooding in Ontario and Quebec and the Jasper wildfire) accounted for losses of US$142.1 million. Flooding in Dubai also featured on the catastrophe loss balance sheet, with an estimated loss cost of US$89.1 million.
Total catastrophe losses for 2024 amounted to US$1.1 billion, impacting Fairfax's general insurance combined ratio by 4.5 percentage points. This amount exceeds the catastrophe losses recorded in 2023 by US$202 million.
