April 2004/1

New run-off appointment, but 2001 loss uncertainty leaves 20 syndicates open Lloyd's is understood to be attempting to address the issue of run-off for open year accounts with the appointment of Stephen McCann as head of run-off for the Lloyd's market.

Lloyd's insurer Catlin has ended its long wait and gone public on the LSE. The IPO, London's second largest in 2004, raised £109mn ($200mn), with shares priced at 350p. This comes in at the bottom end of the 350-420p range predicted by Catlin in a 17 Marc

Ex-Faraday CEO Nigel Barton and former Xchanging In-sure Services MD John Benjamin have announced the formation of a new brokerage for the London market. The new company, named Oxygen, will place specialty risks such as yacht cover, employers' liabilit

Buffeted by a draconian restructuring programme and the departure of senior executives, UK broker Heath Lambert had some good news last month - in the shape of a number of new appointments and promotions to its regional and head offices. On 9 March Hea

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

Radical proposals designed to boost regulatory capital and improve financial strength ratings Lloyd's is planning to treble the size of the Central Fund to £2bn in an innovative scheme which involves a compulsory three-year rolling loan from all of its

US life insurer Lincoln National reduced its exposures to workers' compensation carve-out losses written by Sun Life and Phoenix after successfully appealing part of an arbitration decision that ruled it was exposed to losses emanating from the notorious

The Berkshire Hathaway owned Lloyd's insurer Marlborough Underwriting Agency has refocused its strategy to concentrate on wholesale reinsurance business. As a consequence, last month its Syndicate 1861 transferred the renewal rights for much of its pr

David Schiff looks at legal reform... You've heard it before. The legal system is out of control. The plaintiff's bar is ruining America. If we don't get legal reform, terrible things will happen: businesses will go bust or go elsewhere; jobs will be l

Allianz back in profit but fails to convince A turnaround from 2002's record EUR1.2bn loss to a healthy net profit of EUR1.6bn for 2003 failed to convince the markets as German insurer Allianz admitted it still had some way to go in the struggle to rever

Markel CEO and President Tony Markel has praised Lloyd's for reforms carried out since 2002, but has warned of the need for further change. Markel's comments came in a speech to a crowded Lloyd's library on 16 March, 2004, when he said he was encourage