U.S. Life Insurers May Face More Real Estate Losses

Bloomberg reports:

U.S. life insurers, a group led by MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., may face $15 billion in additional commercial real estate losses, most of which will be recognized in the next two years, Fitch Ratings said.

The life insurers have already booked about $5 billion in such losses since the economic crisis began, bringing the expected total to $20 billion, Douglas L. Meyer, a Fitch analyst, said today in an interview. Most future losses will be taken this year and in 2011, he said.