Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
We'll take our first question from Ron Bowman.
Ron Bowman
Hi, good morning.
Andy Barnard
Good morning, Ron.
Ron Bowman
Hi. I have sort of a handful of questions, not in any particular order. Andy, you mentioned the U.S. insurance program that didn't meet your base rate returns and it's giong to somebody else. What line of business was that?
Andy Barnard
That was in professional liability, Ron.
Ron Bowman
Okay. Thanks. Does that include med mal, as you define it?
Andy Barnard
No.
Ron Bowman
Okay. Not med mal. Okay. Andy, the cat losses from your Asia business, Scott, you mentioned an $18 million number from the snowstorm and $7 million from the earthquake. The $18 million from the snowstorm, is that an incremental loss in Q2 associated with the Q1 event?
Andy Barnard
Yes, Ron, this is Andy. Yes, that was incremental.
Ron Bowman
Okay. Could you remind us what you put up in the first quarter for that incremental?
Andy Barnard
$10 million.
Ron Bowman
$10 million? Okay.
Andy Barnard
So, we have about $28 million, $29 million carried in reserve for that [venture] presently.
Ron Bowman
Okay. And I'm curious, on both the snowstorm and the quake, this I assume is reinsurance business that you write. And is it a common ceding company for both of these losses?
Andy Barnard
There are multiple ceding companies. Actually, the earthquake is largely from a global company that had interests insured in China, whereas the snowstorm losses are exclusively from a variety of Chinese companies that we had relationships with for some year.
Ron Bowman
Got you. In education, the Chinese insurance companies that buy reinsurance new, how do they buy? Do they come to Singapore with the broker? Is it a direct purchase? Just sort of would you enlighten me?
Andy Barnard
The excess of loss business tends to exclusively be done through brokers. As I mentioned, Ron, we've had through our EuroAsia operation, extensive relationships from China from some time. And so, we know these companies directly, but the business is usually transacted through a broker for excess of loss. Some of the proportion of business might be on a direct basis.
Ron Bowman
And do they use like the global alphabet brokers?
Andy Barnard
Yeah (inaudible).
Ron Bowman
Got you. When these events happened, did you immediately know you're going to have, not that you knew, but you sort of suspected you're going to have losses in this ballpark? Were there any lessons learned as far as the losses were greater or lesser than you had thought?
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