August 2010/1

The Insurance Insider gauges the response of London's independent wholesalers following Aon's decision not to use third-parties to access wholesale markets

Munich Re's Watkins steps aside on prestigious sports injury programme. The Insurance Insider has all the details...

T&Cs are getting progressively weaker but we haven't hit rock bottom because three-year multi-deals have yet to reappear. If this is one sign of a soft market trough, what's the other?

Onshore US cat losses mounted to $4.4bn in Q2, according to figures from Property Claim Services, with the figure now above the long-term average of $3.6bn for the fourth year out of the last five.

The "cheating" phase is in full steam as (re)insurers rely on reserve releases to mask accident year underwriting losses

Secretive arbitrage funds have bought significant tranches of Brit stock in the past few days, gambling that Apollo's £880mn indicative offer will succeed

Munich Re posted a strong set of bottom line results this morning (4 August) that trumped analysts' expectations and enabled the reinsurer to reiterate its "ambitious" full-year earnings target of EUR2bn.

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Group added a quarter to its H1 profits as reduced overheads and an improved investment performance outweighed an increase in claims.

Steady results from MMC that largely came in on line with analysts' forecasts

Flagstone Re's Mont Fort Re sidecar saved it from reporting a loss in Q2 on the back of Deepwater Horizon losses.

Argo Group International Holdings followed several of its Bermudian compatriots in booking a slide in Q2 operating profits late last night (2 August).

White Mountains Re has been forced to add an additional $20mn to its reserves for the Chilean earthquake, bringing the total expected losses to $130mn.