August 2009/1

As RSA prepares to unveil half-year figures on Thursday (6 August), following strong 2008 results, one analyst has suggested earnings at the UK insurer are set to face "a growing list of headwinds".

The liability claim from the Tupolev Tu-154 passenger aircraft that crashed in north-western Iran on 15 July, killing all 168 on board, is currently estimated at up to $55mn, The Insurance Insider understands.

A trio of Bermudian (re)insurers - RenaissanceRe, Montpelier Re and Endurance Specialty Holdings - booked higher Q2 net income, bolstered by reserve releases and improving investment conditions.

XL Capital's second quarter net profits plunged 66 percent year-on-year from $237.9mn to $79.9mn, as the bottom line was dented by foreign exchange losses and a fall in net investment income.

The predictions of a truly hard reinsurance market have failed to materialise and 2010 could even see the market soften, according to predictions made last week.

White Mountains Insurance Group is restructuring its reinsurance business by converting its Bermudian reinsurance arm into a branch of White Mountains Re Sirius.

RK Harrison has said that the Lloyd's broker Bowood Holdings, which it acquired in October 2008, will become the group's specialist delegated authority broker from 1 October this year...

While WR Berkley CEO Bill Berkley is confident the sluggish US P&C markets are close to turning, similar positive rate change across each of Traveler’s business segments were not enough to fuel Q2 income growth.

Recovering stock markets through the second quarter helped ease the woes of troubled US insurance giant the Hartford Financial Group, as it posted an operating profit that sent its share price up.

French reinsurer Scor's net income for the first six months of the year dropped by 24 percent from H1 2008 to EUR184mn, as investment income more than halved...

Hannover Re's latest catastrophe bond, Eurus II, closed on the 29 July, providing the reinsurer with EUR150mn of European windstorm cover and taking overall 2009 cat bond issuance to $1.8bn.

Fast-expanding insurer Torus Holdings has appointed Naveen Anand - CNA Insurance’s former senior vice president of commercial insurance - as global chief operating officer...