HCC COMMENTS ON
NY STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATIONS
 

HOUSTON (October 25, 2004) . . .
Stephen L. Way, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE symbol: HCC)), today commented on the State of New York’s investigation into various insurance brokers and companies saying, "We have no involvement with any price or premium fixing and have not received any requests for information from the NY Attorney General's office." Mr. Way added, "We of course do not condone such practices and conduct our business at HCC in accordance with the highest legal and ethical standards that have been in place long before Sarbanes-Oxley."

Regarding market service agreements (MSA’s), Mr. Way stated, "Several of our subsidiaries have current MSA agreements in place with certain major insurance brokers, in accordance with market practice; however, we have voluntarily suspended payments under all such agreements. It should be noted that the average total commission that we pay to our producing brokers has reduced since 2001, the start of the hard market. It should be further noted that aggressive competition among insurers in soft markets often leads to higher commissions to producers at the same time as lower premiums for insureds."

HCC is an international insurance holding company and a leading specialty insurance group since 1974, based in Houston, Texas with offices across the USA and in Bermuda, England and Spain. HCC has assets of more than $5 billion, shareholders’ equity of over $1 billion and is rated AA (Very Strong) by Standard & Poor’s and A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company.

For more information, visit our website at www.hcch.com.

©2005 HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc.