Two more Bermuda insurers have announced that they expect to take a significant hit in third quarter earnings due to the impact of the spate of recent hurricanes that raged across the US and Caribbean.

XL Capital Ltd. expects a combined $220 million in claims from Hurricanes Frances and Ivan, on top of the $125 million previously announced from the impact of Hurricane Charley. The company estimates claims from Hurricane Frances will total $70 million while those from Hurricane Ivan should be $150 million. XL still did not have estimates for losses from Hurricane Jeanne as of yesterday, but the company has already stated that the financial impact of Charley, Frances and Ivan will hurt its results. It has also said, however, that costs related to claims will not materially affect its overall financial condition.Analysts on Wall Street had expected XL Capital to generate third-quarter earnings of $8.48 per share, but now expect the company to post earnings of $1.54 per share.

Meanwhile Montpelier Re announced estimated third quarter losses in the range of $185 million to $235 million, representing the combined net negative impact of losses from the four hurricanes, together with Typhoons Songda and Chaba which recently caused death and devastation in Japan.

The company said that the estimate incorporated a reduction from $63 million to $55 million in the upper point of the range of the its previous estimate of the net impact of Hurricane Charley.

Anthony Taylor, chairman, president and chief executive, cautioned that the company had yet to receive actual loss advices from a significant number of clients in respect of all four hurricanes and both typhoons.

Accordingly, the estimate was based on loss advices to date, industry loss estimates, output from industry and proprietary models and a review of in-force contracts. The actual impact of losses from the hurricanes and typhoons on the company's third quarter results might therefore vary materially from the estimate.

In what has been one of the most active hurricane seasons in living memory insurers are expected to take a $15 billion to $20 billion loss from the four hurricanes that have hit Florida and the Caribbean in the last month and industry experts have predicted that third-quarter profits for insurance companies will drop by an estimated 40 to 60 percent.