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August 2011/4

  • Aviva plc has become the latest European insurer to streamline its operations before Solvency II begins in 2013.
  • US insurer Allstate is suing Goldman Sachs, alleging that the investment bank misrepresented the quality of mortgage-linked investments it sold to the firm.
  • The promoter of Michael Jackson's comeback concerts, AEG Live, is countersuing Lloyd's insurers Cathedral and Talbot after they filed earlier in the year to have a $17.5mn contingency policy voided by the California courts system.
  • Property cat reinsurers could be set for a boost in demand from Florida insurers under proposals to reduce the role of the state's catastrophe fund.
  • Yoshihiro Kawai, secretary general of global insurance watchdog the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), said that it is probable that new methods for determining if any insurers are too big to fail should be ready for discussion at the G20 meeting in Mexico in 2012.
  • The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa) has announced it is to launch a low yield environment test for the continent's life insurers.
  • Insurance regulators in Bermuda, Japan and Switzerland are largely on track to meet criteria under the upcoming Solvency II regime, according to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa).
  • The pension risk transfer market turned over deals worth £1.4bn during the second quarter of 2011, according to data from consultancy Hymans Robertson.
  • The capital markets could provide the oil industry with more comprehensive (re)insurance cover at a more competitive price, the founders of a new insurance-linked securities (ILS) venture argue.
  • Aon Corp CEO Greg Case believes that his firm is on course to achieve its 25 percent margin goal in its broking arm, but concedes he is not satisfied with organic growth in the business.
  • Despite optimism that property catastrophe reinsurance rates will continue to rise at 1 January 2012 as RMS catastrophe model changes are implemented more broadly, RenaissanceRe does not see sufficient demand to justify creating a new sidecar.
  • The recent stock market volatility - as further heavy falls at the end of last week wiped out earlier gains - means the P&C sector is trading at around historic lows.
  • Despite UK motor rates climbing by 20-30 percent in the past year the recent Lloyd's motor pain is set to continue, with Canopius predicting further losses both this year and next on its specialist motor Syndicate 260.
  • Lloyd's syndicates have widened their forecast losses for the 2010 year during the past quarter as disaster claims have increased, but syndicates with third party capital support are doing slightly better than their fully aligned counterparts.
  • London-based insurance services firm Charles Taylor Consulting reported a £2.6mn profit for the first half, down more than 50 percent from £5.7mn in the same period last year.
  • Global broker MMC and Bermudian (re)insurer White Mountains both braved global stock market turmoil in announcing new share buyback schemes last week.
  • Ratings agency Fitch has warned that Mapfre's heavy exposure to Spanish sovereign debt could exert financial pressure on the group if the current wide credit spreads between Eurozone sovereign government debt are maintained for a prolonged period.
  • Transatlantic Re and Allied World shareholders will be given the chance to vote on their proposed merger on 20 September as Validus and Berkshire Hathaway look on.
  • Senior executive Tony Lovett has parted company with RSG Europe, the expansive start-up managing general agency (MGA) and wholesale broking subsidiary of Ryan Specialty Group, The Insurance Insider has learned.
  • Torus will only write property catastrophe reinsurance business as a sidecar after agreeing a deal to sell the renewal rights on its portfolio to Montpelier Re.
  • Sails up at R&Q; Rule Britannia; Alterra branches out in UK; IAG motors into China; Greenlight promotes Hedges to CEO; XL Liberty sell PI to struggling legal firms; Hannover buys UK home MGA; XL builds construction team; Atrium Syndicates merge; AIG's Taiwanese pay-back; Builders insured for weather risk
  • QBE's underwriting profit would have been $217mn lower this year if it had been operating under its 2010 reinsurance programme, the firm said, as it announced a $673mn gain for the first half of 2011.
  • Many expected Berkshire Hathaway's talks with Transatlantic Re to be short. After all, the sage doesn't do hostile and rarely - if ever - increases his first offer. His unsolicited approach earlier this month gave Transatlantic's board the luxury of one full working day to agree to his (impossible) terms.
  • Amlin CEO Charles Philipps has insisted that nothing has "gone materially wrong" in the firm's business, attributing first-half losses of £192mn to the vicissitudes of the sector.