Northbridge Financial Corporation (NBFC) reported an underwriting profit of US$204.8 million, compared to US$202.2 million for full year 2021. This represents an increase of 1.3 per cent.
The Canadian property and casualty insurance group includes Northbridge Insurance, Federated Insurance and TruShield Insurance. The results were presented in Fairfax Financial Holdings’ annual report, released on March 10.
Fairfax’s results are reported in US dollars (USD). NFC spokesperson Ellen Brait told The Insurance Portal that the amounts can be converted to Canadian dollars based on the average Bank of Canada exchange rate in 2022, which was C$1.301 for each USD.
Northbridge’s gross written premiums exceeded US$2.3 billion in 2022, while Fairfax reported $27.6 billion in direct written premiums for all subsidiaries. Northbridge thus represents 8 per cent of the group’s total premium volume.
Combined ratio
Northbridge’s combined ratio deteriorated slightly in 2022 to 89.4 per cent from 88.8 per cent in 2021.
In contrast, for fourth quarter 2022, Northbridge’s combined ratio improved to 92.5 per cent from 93.3 per cent in Q4 2021.
Premiums
Northbridge Financial Corporation’s gross written premiums were US$2.3 billion in 2022, versus $2.1 billion in 2022, equal to an increase of 8.5 per cent or $180 million.
For the fourth quarter, gross written premium volume grew by 3.3 per cent to US$594.6 million from US$575.4 million in 2021.
Operating income
Northbridge Financial Corporation’s operating results are not presented in the most recent version of Fairfax’s annual report. “Fairfax is a large and growing company and as such they have made the decision to aggregate the finances of some of their businesses for better reporting to shareholders. This results in less granular disclosure for individual Fairfax entities, like Northbridge,” Brait told The Insurance Portal.
For all of its P&C subsidiaries, Fairfax’s operating income was $2.6 billion in 2022, an increase of 64 per cent. Since Northbridge’s combined ratio is lower than the group average, its operating income likely followed the same trend in 2022, at the very least.
Operating income was C$330.5 million in 2021. If the increase is similar to the group average (64 per cent), this would push income to C$542 million for full-year 2022.
Fairfax’s net earnings attributable to shareholders fell sharply in 2022 to US$1.15 billion, versus $3.4 billion in 2021. This represents a difference of 66 per cent.
In its annual report, Fairfax explains that the $2.3 billion year-over-year difference in net earnings is mainly due to $1.7 billion in losses on investments related to bonds that lost value due to rising interest rates, “the majority of which are expected to reverse over the short term.”
