April 2009/3

Catlin Group is launching a new Lloyd’s Syndicate and has opened a Guernsey branch office to write term life (re)insurance business.

Last year's apparently freakish total of 1,700 US tornadoes - which cost the industry more than $10.5bn in insured losses - may not be so unusual after all.

German insurance giant Allianz's Blue Fin II cat bond – which increased in size to $180mn earlier in the month – was over-subscribed at its close last week (14 April).

Rates on US catastrophe-exposed lines are set to rise by a further 10-20 percent at the key mid-year renewals as a result of capacity scarcity, according to analysts at London-based stockbrokers Execution Ltd. The report adds that...

Talbot Underwriting has become the latest Lloyd's (re)insurer to reveal a hike in 2009 stamp capacity, confirming a 23 percent rise to £400mn on its Syndicate 1183, as it looks to take advantage of what it claims are rising rates across its portfolio.

Willis Group estimates that directors’ and officers’ (D&O) losses as a result of claims relating to the credit crunch and sub-prime will total $5.9bn, with $5.3bn of that attributable to settlement and defence costs.

AIM-listed broker THB Group plc is poised to appoint the former Marsh UK executive Stephen Matanle as the head of its largest division – Lloyd’s broker Thompson Heath & Bond (THB), as first revealed by The Insurance Insider.

Capital is willing to pour into the catastrophe reinsurance sector, but only when 30 percent+ returns become a realistic prospect once again.

As the US property and casualty (P&C) industry converges on Orlando, Florida, for the annual RIMS conference, one of the key themes is the impact the economic crisis is having on the market.

The leveraged UK broker consolidator Towergate Partnership has refinanced its long-term banking facilities – a move that it says will enable its strategy of growth through acquisition to continue.

Lloyd's insurers may be poised to benefit from a change in the UK government's tax treatment of their equalisation reserves, as the UK budget fast approaches (22 April).

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FCHF) has decided not to buy private reinsurance in 2009 or renew the put option it bought from Berkshire Hathaway, The Insurance Insider understands.