August 2010/1

Buffy mulls the motor equivalent of buying BP shares

Benmosche asserts; Markel acquisition; Catlin recruits; Deepwater: $4-6bn; Winds whimper; Brazil boom?

Xchanging commits; London market urged to scrutinise professional fees; Two-jobs Levene; RBSI overhaul; Cool on Kiln; Export vanguard; Bono's back...

Investment giant Berkshire Hathaway provided a further display of its muscular balance sheet on 15 July with a reinsurance contract that provides CNA with up to $4bn of adverse development long-tail asbestos/environmental cover.

Berkshire Hathaway-owned Lloyd's run-off vehicle Equitas has begun striking deals with relevant reinsurers to collect outstanding LMX exposures, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

A UK High Court judge has ordered an additional round of witness statements to be collected ahead of a contempt of court hearing for Aon executive Euan Nicolson in the autumn.

Doubts were cast last month over American International Group (AIG)'s ability to fund the bulk of its recent $725mn Ohio pension funds settlement by selling new common shares.

Bermuda and Switzerland - favoured domiciles for many international (re)insurers - are first on European regulators' list for consideration to grant Solvency II equivalence to non-EU countries.

The US Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Obama on 21 July will "rewrite the landscape of the financial markets", according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

The SEC wrote to Glenn Lammey, CFO of The Hartford's life insurer, demanding to know why the firm's worst holdings had not been marked down.

The flood of credit crisis-related litigation is turning into a trickle, with further evidence that class action lawsuits are declining, providing further good news for US errors and omissions (E&O) insurers.

In what is turning into a European summer of discontent over the controversial Neal Bill legislation in the US, the European Commission (EC) and European insurance and reinsurance federation (the CEA) joined the German ambassador in voicing their objections to the proposed tax measures.