Two Bermuda reinsurers last night announced they would take a combined quarter-billion-dollar hit from their exposure to investments related to the US mortgage crisis.

RenaissanceRe will write down its imminent fourth-quarter results by $181.7 million to account for the expected losses, while PartnerRe will take a $74 million charge. Between them, the two reinsurers own more than half of the bond reinsurer ChannelRe — stakes which both Bermuda companies last night wrote off as worthless.

ChannelRe is a private company which provides resinsurance solely for MBIA, the world's biggest bond insurer, which has written down billions through heavy exposure to investments linked to a rash of defaulted mortgages in the US.

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