Combined ratio drops at Desjardins General Insurance

Desjardins General Insurance Group (DGIG) announced Monday its financial results for the quarter ending Sept. 30, reporting a combined ratio of 95.1%, down from 101.1% in the third quarter of 2012.

Net income for Q3 2013 was $45.4 million on direct written premiums of $550.1 million, up from net income of $22.8 million on direct written premiums of  $517.4 million during Q3 2012.

“For the first nine months of the year, net income was $113.3 million, down from $120.6 million for the same period in 2012,” DGIG stated in a press release. Direct written premiums for the first nine months of 2013 were $1.617 billion and the combined ratio was 94.4%.

DGIG has 3,700 employees across Canada, with more than 2.1 million policies in force, the company stated Nov. 25.  In Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, DGIG provides auto, property, pet, motocycle and recreational vehicle coverage. In Quebec, DGIG also provides business insurance, including auto, property, equipment breakdown, loss of business income and liability.

DGIG reported about 38,000 customers have enrolled in its Ajusto and Intelauto usage-based auto insurance programs.  DGIG is a subsidiary of Levis, Quebec-based Desjardins Group .

In its quarterly report for the three months ending Sept. 30, Desjardins Group reported investment income in its P&C insurance segment was $26 million for Q3 2013, down from $40 million in Q3 2012. Its P&C insurance segment includes both DGIG and High River, Alta.-based Western Financial Group Inc., which owns more than 100 brokerage offices in Western Canada, a chartered bank (Bank West), Western Direct Insurance, a pet insurance carrier (Western Financial Insurance Company), Western Life (originally the Canadian arm of Federated Mutual) and Marlin Travel.

“The loss ratio for the segment’s property and casualty insurers went from 77.5% in the third quarter of 2012 to 71.1% for the same period in 2013,” Desjardins Group stated in its quarterly report.

“This improvement was mainly because of a reduction in the cost of automobile insurance claims in Canada, in spite of the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, the flooding in Toronto and the heavy rains and violent winds in Quebec which affected the quarter. It should be remembered that difficult weather conditions in Quebec in the third quarter of 2012 had resulted in a larger number of claims for that period.”