April 2006/1

Heath Lambert has appointed two new staff members to its Aberdeen office as part of its Scottish expansion plans. Mark Webster has joined Heath Lambert as client service director and is responsible for delivering on the group's Service Excellence...

Russian insurer Ingosstrakh is considering an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange, according to reports last Friday (31 March). The move would see Russia's second largest insurer become the country's first publicly traded...

Insured losses from Cyclone Larry, which struck northeastern Australia last month, are estimated at between AUS$300mn and AUS$400mn by ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P). The agency said that, although Larry had been a major disaster for the...

A report by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is costing UK consumers £400mn a year. Stringent regulations and a sales process that is burdened with too much "irrelevant information"...

Lexington Insurance, a property and casualty unit of American International Group (AIG) has announced that it will reduce its coverage of catastrophe-exposed areas by 20-25 percent this year. Florida, the Gulf Coast and California are among the...

Specialist Lloyd's insurer Advent announced pre-tax losses of £74.8mn in its full-year results, which were released on 31 March. The company fell from last year's pre-tax profit of £4.5mn after suffering a £79.7mn net hit from hurricanes Katrina...

Lloyd's insurer SVB Holdings plc confirmed last week a scheme of arrangement to ring-fence past liabilities, with the creation of a new holding company Novae Group plc, and formation of an FSA-regulated insurer capitalised by proceeds from a £110mn...

Bermudian reinsurance start-up Ariel Re has recruited the head of ACE Energy, Chris Fisher, to lead its energy underwriting division. Fisher was chosen by ACE last year to head its new retail energy unit, ACE Energy, which offers property and...

The unlikely alliance between industry titans Maurice "Hank" Greenberg and Warren Buffett has led to the former AIG chief executive establishing an aviation underwriting platform in Lloyd's. Redholm Underwriting Agents began underwriting on behalf...

German insurance giant Allianz has poached GE Insurance's global aviation head Florian Karner to join the firm's Munich headquarters, Insider Week can reveal. The news comes only a week after Allianz itself lost its London Market aviation chief...

Keith Rutter has returned to frontline duties in the London market this week by joining Oxygen Insurance Brokers. Rutter, the former head of Independent Insurance’s London market operations, together with his ex-colleague at NCG Professional Risks...

Hampden Private Capital is now one of only two remaining Lloyd's members' agencies after acquiring the Names' advisory business from CBS Private Capital. CBS, Hampden Private Capital and Argenta Private Capital, were the three existing Lloyd's...