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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...
  • 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.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • American International Group (AIG) agreed last week to sell its 21st Century US personal auto business to Zurich Financial Services for $1.9bn, representing the biggest insurance disposal in its asset sale programme so far.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Ironshore continues AIG harvest with new property executive; QBE finally appoints US CEO; Chubb promotes London; EQECAT appoints new senior VP manager; Willis appoints Sweden CEO; Colemont hires new aviation CEO...
  • Global broker Aon Risk Services (ARS) has unveiled a powerful real-time global trading platform under the banner of Global Risk Insight Platform (GRIP).
  • Bliss & Glennon, a Californian-based wholesale broker inherited by Willis Group as part of its $2.1bn acquisition of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, was sold by the international broker last week.
  • The value of fraudulent UK insurance claims rose 30 percent to £730mn in 2008, while the number of fraudulent claims rose 17 percent against 2007 to 107,000, according to figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).