April 2005/2

Contract certainty has finally become a "hot" industry subject. Indeed, while market practitioners have long-criticised the industry's inability to consistently issue policy wordings on time, more recently regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have bec

Despite the hurricanes and regulatory investigations of the past year, ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) said last week that it will maintain its stable outlook on the global reinsurance industry. It added, however, that there was a possibility of

Omega Underwriting Holdings Plc became the latest Lloyd’s insurer to become publicly listed when trading began in its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market last week.

Lloyd's specialist insurer Kiln posted record pre-tax profits of £38.1mn for 2004, an increase of 5 percent on 2003’s result. Gross written premiums rocketed by 17 percent to reach £313.5mn, but the company’s combined ratio rose to 86 percent against 2

World’s oldest insurance market Lloyd’s announced annual profits for 2004 of £1.36bn, 28 percent down on the £1.89bn it booked in 2003. But in the light of net claims of £1.2bn from the devastating US hurricanes that hit the Caribbean and Florida last

Rating agency AM Best has cut its financial strength rating on Bermudian reinsurer Inter-Ocean Holdings Limited to B++ (Very Good) from A- (Excellent), following the company’s announcement that it has ceased writing new business and is now in run-off.

Under-fire insurance giant American International Group (AIG) endured another difficult week as further revelations broke about the nature of its involvement in transactions now under the intense scrutiny of regulators. The week had begun in relatively

The Lloyd’s Names’ stop loss mutual Integer has announced a second proposal for a scheme of arrangement, with the aim of distributing its £9mn assets to the Lloyd’s members who bought stop-loss reinsurance polices from the company in the late nineties.

Marsh UK has published details of its new “model” designed to show greater transparency of its revenue structures after it abolished the controversial Placement Service Agreements (PSAs) last year. The broker says it has the agreement in principle fro

US regulators will interview two of the States’ financial titans as they continue to probe a $500mn transaction between American International Group and Berkshire Hathaway’s General Re which AIG has recently admitted was “improper”. Officers from the

US banking giant Wachovia Corporation continued its strategy of growing its insurance presence with an agreement to acquire broker Palmer & Cay last week. Wachovia, which also owns a 40.86 percent stake in Lloyd’s broker Besso Holdings Ltd, will see it

Specialist Bermudian reinsurers RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd and PartnerRe Ltd received another round of subpoenas from US regulators last week. The New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the Securities & Exchange Commission are requesting informati