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.

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...

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.

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.

April's reinsurance renewals for life and personal accident (PA) reinsurance saw the average rate on line decline by 3.8 percent, and in some cases there were falls of as much as 10 percent.

Lloyd’s opens Brazil office; Mitsui Sumitomo branches out to Eastern Europe; Beazley completes acquisition of First State...

Ratings agency Moody's has revised its outlook for the US commercial lines insurance sector to negative from stable.

Bermuda-headquartered insurer Hiscox has re-jigged its group reporting structure as it continues its US expansion.

German regulator BaFin is set to give its verdict on German hedge fund Augur Capital's EUR20mn acquisition of Deutsche Versicherungs- und Rückversicherungs-AG (DARAG) later this week, The Insurance Insider understands.

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.

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).