Red ink spilled over the bottom lines of midyear Bermuda-market financial reports, but executives are signaling a top-line upside from catastrophe losses that they see altering the mindsets of some key customers—namely, cat-reinsurance buyers.

In addition, despite the fact that only two of the 10 publicly traded Bermuda insurers and reinsurers that released earnings by the end of July reported positive numbers on their net-income lines, the capital levels of the cat-protection sellers remain strong, market participants and analysts say—highlighting the market's ability to take it on the chin (see charts).

"When you look at the extraordinary size of catastrophes in the world over the past 15 or 18 months, what is amazing is the Bermuda market—the center of global cat reinsurance—is absolutely intact," says Ed Noonan, chair and CEO of Validus Holdings.

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