August 2007/5

The Insurance Insider's Trading Risk event on the 6 September has now attracted over 350 registrants - meaning only subscribers to the publication can now register to attend.

London market back office service provider Xchanging plc has entered into a retail investment account management partnership with Allianz Global Investors.

Newly-listed Tawa plc has raided outsourcing firm Axiom Consulting as it strengthens its asbestos, pollution and health hazard (APH) team.

Insurance services company Whittington has overseen the first successful scheme of arrangement for a Singapore-based insurance company, with the closure of Lion City Run-Off Private Ltd.

"Class of 2005" insurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd has appointed Neil McConachie as its chief risk officer.

Despite the fact it was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since records began Hurricane Dean's "extraordinarily fortunate track" left (re)insurers facing only modest losses.

Lloyd's insurer Novae Group plc has announced that Jonathan Butcher will become active underwriter of its Syndicate 2007 following the retirement of the incumbent Alan Hicks later this year.

Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) has confirmed that it has made a $30mn settlement for a class action lawsuit in the US.

Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd has relocated its global reinsurance business to Dublin in order to take advantage of the Europe Union's regulatory regime, said the company.

Last week saw the first trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) of a Re-Ex Index catastrophe derivative, and a joint venture to launch a specialist insurance derivatives broker.

Marsh & McLennan (MMC) is holding to its commitment to return funds to shareholders when it announced on 24 August that it would buy $800mn of its shares from a "financial institution".

Independent Insurance's London Market division was accepting "rubbish business" where "no premium was too cheap" the company's former chief executive Michael Bright told a court last week.