ACE Ltd. isn't the cause of falling insurance rates and won't underwrite new risks unless they're profitable, CBS MarketWatch reported yesterday.

The business news website reported that Evan Greenberg, president and chief executive of the Bermuda-based insurer denied ACE is responsible for cost-cutting.

Insurance stocks have taken a battering as they have released strong second quarter earnings results but have warned that some lines of business are seeing rate reductions.

CBS MarketWatch said analysts have fingered ACE as one of the price-cutting culprits.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, CEO of American International Group, the largest insurer in the world, said last week that rivals were undermining prices. Ace shares gained 18 cents to $39.75 yesterday buy are down more than six percent in the past ten sessions.

"They seem to be the one everyone's pointing at," said Paul Newsome, an analyst at A.G. Edwards told the website. "They're growing faster than their peers. Why? Competitors are saying it's because they're cutting prices."

Ace's CEO vigorously denied this in an interview with CBS MarketWatch.

"Competitors' talk not withstanding, we are responsible underwriters," Mr. Greenberg said. "There'll be a point when companies will begin to write business at sub-standard rates of return or even losses. We won't do that."

ACE will turn away business at the expense of sales growth if rates don't meet the firm's profitability requirements, Greenberg told analysts during a conference call earlier yesterday.

He cited flat or falling revenue in several of the company's divisions, including aviation reinsurance, global energy and excess casualty-related lines, as proof that the firm isn't chasing unprofitable business.

The company's so-called "bound-business ratio" ? a measure of how much new business Ace takes on versus how much it rejects ? came in at about 20 percent this quarter, Greenberg said. A ratio of between 30 and 40 percent is considered "selective," he added.

Jay Gelb, of Prudential Equity Group, was unimpressed. He downgraded Ace to "Neutral Weight" from "Overweight" on concern a 25 percent increase in property and casualty premiums in the first half of this year will leave the firm vulnerable to a softening of prices in commercial lines.