“We remain on track to reduce our expense ratio below 30% by 2027.”

In context

“of 37% from the prior year quarter. This was driven by excellent results from the business and focused execution of our investment portfolio strategy. General Insurance gross premiums written were $10.1 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 4% from the prior year. Net premiums written were $6.9 billion, an increase of 1%. For the second quarter, General Insurance accident year combined ratio as adjusted was 88.4%, an increase of 80 basis points over the prior year quarter. I'll unpack the loss ratio when I cover the segments. Looking at expenses. In the second quarter, General Insurance expense ratio was 31.0%, a 50 basis point increase year-over-year. General Insurance absorbed $83 million of additional expenses that were booked in other operations in the second quarter of 2024. We remain on track to reduce our expense ratio below 30% by 2027. Moving to catastrophes. Charges for the quarter totaled $170 million or 2.9 loss ratio points. Prior year development for the quarter net of reinsurance was $128 million favorable, which included $97 million of favorable loss reserve development and $31 million of ADC amortization. The favorable development primarily stemmed from workers' compensation, largely driven by favorable trends on excess of loss sensitive business. U.S. property and special risks also developed favorably. We strengthened U.S. Casualty by $106 million, which is driven by mass tort and older accident years, of which the vast majority is in accident years 2015 and prior, which are covered by the ADC. We also reapportioned some of the uncertainty provision in casualty lines into the more recent accident years as we o”