Insurers are finding it tough to ex...

Insurers are finding it tough to expand and change the direction of a profit in most markets as 2003 wins under way. Investment losses from weak stock markets, regulatory uncertainty and prior-year losse like as asbestos continue to hamper increase in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Japan, a moribund economy with a sick banking sector at its core has created a uncertainty as to the health of about of the country's insurers.

Swiss Re assemblage in its annual survey of the global insurance industry (Sigma No. 6 2002) said a general downturn in the global economy has