HCC Insurance Holdings (FRA:HCZ) Quality Rank

HCC Insurance Holdings Inc was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1991. The Company provides specialized property and casualty, surety, and group life, accident and health insurance coverages and related agency and reinsurance brokerage services to commercial customers and individuals. It concentrates its activities in selected, narrowly defined, specialty lines of business. The Company has five underwriting segments: U.S. Property & Casualty, Professional Liability, Accident & Health, U.S. Surety & Credit and International. U.S. Property & Casualty segment includes specialty lines of insurance such as aviation, small account errors and omissions liability (E&O), public risk, contingency, disability, title and mortgage reinsurance, residual value, employment practices liability (EPLI), technical property, primary and excess casualty, and brown water marine written in the U.S. The majority of the business is primary coverage, and claims are reported and settled on a short to medium-term basis. Professional Liability segment primarily consists of its directors' and officers' (D&O) liability business. In addition, it write related professional liability and crime business coverages, including large account E&O liability, fiduciary liability, fidelity and bankers blanket bonds, and EPLI for some D&O policyholders. Accident & Health segment includes medical stop-loss, short-term domestic and international medical products, written in the United States. The majority of the business covers groups of employees, and claims are reported and settled quickly. U.S. Surety & Credit segment conducts business through separate specialty surety underwriting operations and credit underwriting operations. International segment includes energy, property treaty, liability, surety, credit, property (direct and facultative), ocean marine, accident and health and other smaller product lines written from operations in the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland. The Company operates mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland. Some of its operations have a broader international scope. The Company markets its products both directly to customers and through a network of independent and affiliated brokers, producers, agents and third party administrators. Its insurance companies are risk-bearing and focus their underwriting activities on providing insurance and/or reinsurance in the following lines of business: Diversified financial products; Group life, accident and health; Aviation; London market account and other specialty lines. The Company's underwriting agencies underwrite on behalf of its insurance companies and in certain situations for other unaffiliated insurance companies. The agencies specialize in the following types of business: contingency; directors' and officers' liability; individual disability; kidnap and ransom; employment practices liability; errors and omissions liability; public entity; various financial products