Irish division of Liberty Insurance ‘driving group’s Europe operations’

US insurance giant Liberty Mutual has said that its Irish business is driving the group’s operations in Europe.

The company suggested it had benefited from an increased car insurance business in Ireland since the collapse of Setanta Insurance earlier this year.

The Boston-headquartered insurer yesterday issued second-quarter figures — which showed a 12.3% annualised drop in net income to $393m (€295m), but a 5.2% year-on-year growth in overall net written premiums (NWP) to $9.2bn, largely attributed to the expansion of its personal lines division. Little about Ireland was mentioned in the results, apart from total NWPs for the first half of the year amounting to $133m. First-quarter NWP for Ireland amounted to $52m, with the company holding a 6.5% share of the local market which analysts said implies Liberty wrote $81m of premiums during the second quarter of the year.