Insurers Shrug Off Euro's Woes.

The relentless fall of the euro has shaken money markets, but seems to be having little effect on the bottom line for insurers whose business crosses the Atlantic.

European insurers that do a lot of business in dollars are getting a boost to their earnings when those premiums are translated back into euros, the new common currency of the European Union. Conversely, claims payments in dollars take a bigger bite out of underwriting results. U.S. insurers, meanwhile, face an opposite effect when their euro-dominated policies are converted into dollars.

But equity analysts have said the euro's woes aren't weighing heavily on insurers from either side of the Atlantic. It's a greater problem for manufacturing companies than for insurers, analysts agreed.

Andrew Ritchie, an analyst with Fox-Pitt, Kelton in London, said the weak euro could have a hypothetical effect on European insurers' expansion plans in the United States, but in practice that doesn't seem to be the case. The currency's fall against the dollar "doesn't seem to be affecting the corporate calendar," Ritchie said.

U.S. insurers are seeing similarly muted effects on their European business, said Michael Lewis, an analyst with UBS Warburg in New York. He said companies, such as Chubb Corp., are seeing some effect on their premiums but not on earnings.

"The bottom-line effect is not that big," said Simon Foessmeier, an analyst with Bank Julius Baer in Frankfurt, Germany.