St. Paul Leaves Medical Malpractice Business

The St. Paul Companies said it would move out of its money-losing medical malpractice business and would quit or trim some other business lines, cutting an unspecified number of jobs and taking pretax charges of $900 million for increased reserves, restructuring costs and asset write-downs.

The moves are the first by new Chief Executive Jay Fishman to reshape the company after he assumed his position in October.

The insurer said the fourth-quarter pretax charges of about $900 million would include a $600 million increase in medical malpractice reserves, a $75 million reserve increase for Sept. 11 claims, a $75 million write-down of goodwill related to the exited lines, and a restructuring charge of about $75 million, the majority of for severance costs, as it cuts some jobs.