Amwest Insurance Posts a 43% Drop in Earnings

Amwest Insurance Group Inc., a Woodland Hills underwriter of bail bonds and other surety contracts, said its first-quarter earnings dropped 43% from a year earlier, to $586,000 from $1.03 million.

The lower profit in the quarter ended March 31 came on a 3% increase in Amwest’s net premiums earned--an industry gauge of total revenue--to $12.3 million from $12 million a year earlier.

Amwest blamed the earnings decline partly on a higher number of claims by its customers, and to a higher effective tax rate, which occurred when Amwest cut the number of tax-exempt investments in its portfolio.