Chubb Facing Major Fallout from Enron Crisis

Insurer Chubb Corp. said it has $220 million in maximum pre-tax exposure to surety bonds relating to Enron Corp.

Surety bonds, sold by Chubb and other insurers to a wide variety of companies, make payments on financial contracts in the event of a default. Analysts are widely expecting crisis-hit energy firm Enron to default on its financial obligations.

Chubb said its maximum exposure to Enron after tax was about $143 million, or 82 cents per share. It said it had not yet received any claims on the surety bonds.