CNA Financial Corp. benefited from the U.S. tax reform law in the 2018 first quarter, but the Chicago-based carrier also saw a steady gain in underwriting income.

CNA booked $291 million in net income, or $1.07 per share, for Q1 compared to $260 million, or $0.96 per share, during the same year-ago period. Chairman and CEO Dino Robusto said the insurer had a strong start to 2018 driven “by the highest level of pretax underwriting income in over 10 years” as well as strong growth and the return to positive core income for its runoff long-term care business.

CNA said it also benefited from the U.S. business tax rate reduction from 35 percent to 21 percent.

The insurer’s P/C operations reported a 93.1 combined ratio, better than the 97.2 generated in Q1 2017. CNA’s Specialty combined ratio was 87.5 versus 93.2 the previous year. Its Commercial combined ratio ranked at 97.1, an improvement over the 101.7 booked in the 2017 first quarter. The carrier’s International combined ratio was 96.6 compared to 95.1 in the 2017 first quarter.

Some additional CNA result highlights:

• Property/casualty net written premiums surpassed $1.8 billion during the quarter compared to $1.6 billion in the 2017 first quarter. Net P/C investment income was $327 million compared to $268 million in the previous year’s quarter.

• Specialty insurance net written premiums landed at $686 million versus $670 million in Q1 2017.

• Commercial insurance net written premiums reached $832 million compared to $724 million in the 2017 first quarter.

• International net written premiums were $295 million, up from $238 million in the 2017 first quarter.

Source: CNA