James River Group to Cancel Auto Insurance for Uber Affiliate Rasier

Source: WSJ | Published on October 10, 2019

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James River Group Holdings Ltd. announced it delivered a notice of early cancellation of all insurance policies issued to Rasier LLC, its largest customer. Rasier is an affiliate of Uber Technologies Inc.

James River said the policies will be canceled as of Dec. 31.

“This account has not met our expectations for profitability, and we think it best to terminate the underwriting relationship as of year-end,” said J. Adam Abram, the chairman and chief executive of James River.

“All insurance policies related to this customer are included in the company’s commercial auto line of business within its Excess and Surplus Lines segment, and a majority of the insurance policies were due to expire on February 29, 2020,” James River said.

James River also announced a “pretax, adverse development of between $55 and $60 million, net of reinsurance recoveries and reinstatement premiums. These losses are primarily related to its commercial auto line of business within its Excess and Surplus Lines segment, for the 2016 and 2017 underwriting years.”

The remainder of the losses, which are less than $10 million, are related to previous underwriting years in the casualty-reinsurance segment, the company said.

The company also reported 72% growth in its noncommercial auto Excess and Surplus Lines gross written premiums, compared with the prior year’s quarter.

“James River is one of four insurers Uber works with in the U.S.–the other three are Farmers Insurance Group, Progressive Corp. and Allstate Corp. James River insures the ride-hailer’s drivers in 20 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico,” a spokesperson for Uber said. The company anticipates bringing on another insurer to replace James River but didn’t provide details.