Major Japanese insurance group NKSJ has more than trebled its net loss forecast for the Thai floods to 100bn yen ($1.29bn) after carrying out a more detailed loss adjusting exercise…Read more
The continued rehabilitation of AIG has been rewarded by AM Best with a revision of its outlook on the parent company and its Chartis and Lexington insurance operations from negative to stable…Read more
The (re)insurance industry will have to endure more pain before the market turns even after a year of more than $100bn of insured losses, Alterra president and CEO Marty Becker has said…Read more
Insurance-specialist private equity investor Aquiline Capital Partners has bought Bermuda-based catastrophe investment manager Juniperus Capital Ltd (JCL), sister title Trading Risk has revealed…Read more
The Chubb Corporation matched fellow US giant Travelers in reporting fourth quarter rate rises of 6 percent in its commercial insurance division as price increases accelerated through the year…Read more
After a tough year for its retrocessionaires, Hannover Re has renewed its protection for 2012, albeit on stricter terms than last year…Read more
Reported loss estimates for the severe flooding in Thailand from property and casualty insurers have surpassed the $6bn threshold after a flurry of loss announcements over the past week… Read more
Although many (re)insurers' pre-results headlines revolved around Thai exposures and loss creep from earlier 2011 catastrophes, investors are likely to focus more on commentary in earnings releases and calls on the market's rates prospects… Read more
Offshore energy insurers are facing the prospect of assuming more risk themselves or cutting back their lines after reinsurers responded to another year of losses by raising prices and tightening terms… Read more
As US giants Travelers and Chubb get the Q4 earnings season underway this week, results across the (re)insurance sector are expected to diverge between those with Thai exposures and international loss creep and the domestically focused players that enjoyed a relatively benign quarter for weather events… Read more
With underwriting performance for the fourth quarter divided depending on exposure to Thailand and loss creep from other international catastrophes, there is also likely to be a mixed picture emerging on investment performance… Read more
AmWINS has closed its £31.8mn deal to buy UK-listed broker Thompson Heath & Bond (THB), a transaction first revealed by The Insurance Insider last July.… Read more
A handful of new cat funds made their mark on the 1 January renewal season, deploying significant capacity into the collateralised reinsurance and retro, industry loss warranty (ILW) and cat bond markets. … Read more
Major Japanese insurance group NKSJ has more than trebled its net loss forecast for the Thai floods to 100bn yen ($1.29bn) after carrying out a more detailed loss adjusting exercise… Read more
A Dutch court has sanctioned a securities class action suit for investors in the late-2001 carve-out of Zurich Financial Services (ZFS)' reinsurance arm Converium, the first collective settlement to be agreed on a transatlantic basis.… Read more
Stricter regulatory rules under Solvency II could cause a limited outflow of captive entities from the EU, according to ratings agency Fitch.… Read more
The European Commission has denied reports that it is considering further delaying the implementation of Solvency II, and has insisted it remains committed to ensuring legislation is in place to allow the industry to stick to the 2014 deadline.… Read more
The increased focus on run-off portfolios created by the incoming Solvency II regime (see above story) will lead to greater use of schemes of arrangement by continental (re)insurers, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' scheme tsar Dan Schwarzmann.… Read more
Chartis-backed Lloyd's (re)insurer Ascot Underwriting has formed a new consortium in association with Brit Insurance, QBE Insurance Group and model developer Sciemus to underwrite power and utilities business.… Read more
Sometimes this industry can be its own worst enemy. A common complaint in the sector is that we are often widely misunderstood… Read more
The Insurance Insider profiles Axis Capital's next CEO… Read more
When The Insurance Insider last set down on the shores of Bermuda, the market was in the immediate aftershock of the Great Tohoku earthquake. It was late March and at our first Bermuda reinsurance roundtable of 2011 the talk was naturally dominated by the impact of the Japanese tragedy… Read more
When we gathered some of the industry's leading lights in this great coastal retreat last year, we heard tales of how hefty H1 nat cat and man made losses might hasten the end of the latter stages of the late-soft market cycle… Read more
It was great to see so many of the D&F fraternity gathered in Monte Carlo this year, doing the rounds in what, even for the principality, was especially hot weather. In the run-up to this year's roundtable one issue really seemed to dominate the thinking of those in the market, namely who's buying?… Read more
What a lot of questions and worries we have today, so many more than in the past. Take investments. Historically, returns from the asset side of the balance sheet have contributed a meaningful percentage of the insurance industry's overall profitability… Read more