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## R ELIABILITY 

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IN THE LIFE REINSURANCE INDUSTRY, CONSOLID ATION, RATINGS DOWNGRADES AND RE-PRICING GRABBED MANY OF THE HEADLINES OVER THE PAST YEAR. THROUGH THIS CHAOTIC ENVIRONMENT, RGA HAS NEVERTHELESS MAINTAINED A STEADY COURSE. 

In 2003 we steered through changes in pricing environment and interest rates, a fluctuating dollar, and changing capital and accounting regulations. For clients of a life reinsurer, whose promises are very long term, reliability and stability are especially valued commodities. 

Our mature operations in the U.S. and Canada produced good results in 2003, consistent with expectations. Mortality, which drives our overall results, played out as planned. Both U.S. and Canadian operations have shown good pricing discipline through recent competitive years and are now experiencing generally more favorable market conditions as the environment changes. RGA delivers mortality covers and structures to direct insurers, which provide good value to the insurers as well as good returns to RGA. Our professionals in the U.S. and Canada have a long history of providing reliability to the market. 

Our U.S. business recorded a net premium increase of 28 percent and a pre-tax income increase of 23 percent for the year, both 

aided by the Allianz transaction, while in Canada net premiums increased 18 percent. Pre-tax income posted a 54 percent increase over the prior year. 

Facultative business has been a hallmark of RGA reliability throughout our history. The U.S. has always been our largest facultative market, but due to rapid growth in other markets now represents less than one half of our total applications. We have successfully built facultative businesses in our new geographic markets, even where little facultative activity predated our arrival. This past year marks the first time that our facultative activity in the rest of the world eclipsed that in the U.S. 

Life reinsurance is a long-term business; the importance of delivering reliable value and making reliable estimates of current and future mortality is hard to overstate. RGA works hard to achieve these objectives and to gather the information critical to underpinning good decisions. 

