insurer

Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services AG on Thursday reported a 90 percent drop in profit for the third quarter following pre-tax writedowns of $1.1 billion and a costly hurricane season.

Insurer Swiss Life Holding said Wednesday it expects a loss for the full year 2008, excluding one-off gains from the sale of some units, due to the financial crisis.

The government announced an overhaul of its rescue of A.I.G., after signs that the initial bailout was putting too much strain on the ailing insurer.

Insurer Allianz SE reported a 2 billion euro loss Friday after it said that the value of its investments declined and it wrote off the value of its Dresdner Bank unit before its planned sale to Commerzbank.

French insurer Axa SA said its revenue slipped 3.1 percent in the nine months to September 30 on a steep drop in sales of life insurance and savings products in the U.S. and Britain.

Insurer Aegon NV on Thursday said it swung to a net loss of 329 million euros ($425 million) in the third quarter, blaming write-offs and losses on investments resulting from the global financial crisis.

Third-quarter sales at insurer Old Mutual fell by 4 percent from a year ago as the global economic slowdown eroded demand for life insurance around the world, the company said Thursday.

The government agency that insures private-sector pension plans lost $3.1 billion in the stock market over the first 11 months of the federal fiscal year.

New York’s attorney general Andrew M. Cuomo demanded that the insurer recover bonuses and other payments from its former executives, lest he take formal action against the company.

A medium-sized Japanese insurance company says it has gone bankrupt, becoming the first Japanese financial company to collapse on the fallout from the U.S. credit crisis.