Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest insurance market, had the best underwriting performance of the top ten providers of commercial coverage in the UK last year, the Financial Times said, citing analysis by Oxford Metrica.

Lloyd's had the best combined ratio, the sum of losses and expenses as a proportion of premiums, at 90.7 percent, ahead of Bermuda-based ACE Ltd, the paper said.

The insurer also achieved the lowest loss ratio in the group, although it only came ninth in terms of financial performance, the paper said. Zurich Financial Services AG was the company which most improved its combined ratio, to bring it to fifth place in the rankings.

American International Group Inc., had the lowest expense ratio, as it did in 2002, the paper said.