Eighteen Bermuda reinsurance companies monitored by broker Guy Carpenter suffered a combined loss of $6.6 billion last year.

And shareholders' equity among the same companies in the Guy Carpenter Bermuda Reinsurance Composite plunged by 15 percent, the broker said yesterday.

Although Guy Carpenter does not specify which companies are included, the figures illustrate the extent to which the global financial crisis impacted the Island's reinsurers in a year when the global financial crisis wiped billions off the value of investment portfolios, compounding losses emanating from catastrophe-related claims.

Last year's $6.6 billion loss marks a "precipitous drop" from 2007's net gain of $8.6 billion, Guy Carpenter said.

The broker made the point that reinsurance operations had continued to be profitable in a difficult year, while investment losses were 2008's chief contributor to the companies' difficulties.

"Fifteen of the 18 companies in the Bermuda Reinsurance Composite posted underwriting gains," Guy Carpenter said. "Nonetheless, insured losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike — particularly because of Bermuda's relatively high property-catastrophe exposure — caused the composite's earnings as a whole to fall 70 percent."

Investment losses for the group were huge, totalling nearly $10 billion. Of those, around $4 billion were realised losses, compared to $200 million in 2007, while unrealised losses swelled to $5.9 billion from $100 million the previous year.

Without the unrealised losses, eight of the 18 companies would have posted net profits for the year, Guy Carpenter said.

Aggregate shareholders' equity for the group, which does not include Ace Ltd. or Flagstone Re, fell to $52 billion from $62 billion, and return on equity averaged -7.9 percent.

The changes of shareholders' equity for individual reinsurers ranged from eight percent gains to 39 percent drops.