April 2005/5

Privately owned Lloyd’s insurer Heritage Underwriting Agency plc has confirmed that it has received interest from at least two parties interested in acquiring the group.

Shares in Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) have come under sustained selling pressure after the firm issued another downbeat trading statement. The UK headquartered broker warned today that it was viewing the year with “continued caution” because

Embattled insurance giant American International Group has denied suggestions that its 2004 annual statement is being delayed by a refusal from auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers to sign off the firm’s accounts.

The Aon WTC personal accident dispute has been settled in favour of the London Market reinsurers, according to a judgement released on 21 April. As reported in the March edition of The Insurance Insider, the case came to the Royal Courts of Justice aft

UK insurer Brit has announced the appointment of two senior underwriters in its Property Treaty and Aerospace segments. At the former, Toby Stubbs joins the company’s Reinsurance Underwriting Centre as Property Treaty Underwriter from Aspen Insurance w

Willis’ larger-than-life CEO Joe Plumeri ignited a war of words in the US last week over the use of contingent commissions. As the keynote speaker at last week’s Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) conference in Philadelphia, Plumeri complained

German reinsurer Hannover Re has had its insurance financial strength and debt ratings upgraded from Baa1 to A3 and Ba1 to Baa2 respectively with a stable outlook by rating agency Moody’s Investors Service.

Investment bank Cazenove issued a downbeat note on reinsurance broker Benfield Group last week following the arrival of former JLT chief executive Steve McGill and the decision to expand its business into the primary markets.

Lloyd’s pre-1993 run-off vehicle Equitas announced another settlement last Tuesday (19 April) as it revealed it would pay The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company $22mn to draw a line under outstanding asbestos and pollution-related claims from the tyre manufac

Delegates at the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) conference in Philadelphia last week were warned of spiralling costs of terrorism coverage if the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) is not extended.

Berkshire Hathaway has had its “AAA” long-term issuer and unsecured senior debt ratings outlook downgraded from stable to negative by ratings agency Fitch. In an announcement dated 19 April, Fitch said the downgrade also applied to Berkshire’s wholly o

Lloyd’s backed electronic data transfer platform Kinnect has today confirmed the departure of its former customer operations director Phillip Bungey. Bungey, who joined the company in its earliest inception as Lloyds.com in 2001 under former CEO Ashok