December 2004/1

The beleaguered broking giant MMC took further steps to improve its corporate governance rating last month by firing five senior executives from its board of directors last week.

The decision by Marsh Ltd's chief executive Bruce Carnegie-Brown to commission an independent report into its activities proved to be inspired. At an apparent cost of £2mn, Marsh Ltd received "cleared of wrongdoing" headlines in all the UK newspapers read

The irascible former England Football manager Terry "El Tel" Venables once described mixed feelings as watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new car, and it is a sentiment which MMC shareholders might have some empathy. Although there

Companies subpoenaed but observers divided over impact of latest regulatory probe The spectre of Spitzer spread to the practise of finite (re)insurance last month, as several companies, including Swiss Re, Ace, St Paul Travelers, Platinum Underwriters

Litigation epic bears bitter sweet fruit for leaseholder with potential $1bn gain The jury in the second round of WTC insurance litigation has delivered its verdict in favour of the building's leaseholder Larry Silverstein. The decision, which the j

New evidence has come to light of the use of off-balance-sheet transactions by insurance giant AIG. The allegations, published in industry newsletter Inside Bermuda, relate to offshore structures in Barbados and Bermuda used by AIG in the 1980s to circ

Recently merged US insurance giant St Paul Travelers faces losses over and above the $252mn reserve it set aside for a surety exposure on the so-called "Big Dig" project, according to analysts at Lehman Brothers. In a note, equity analyst Chris Winans hi

The removal of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group's chief executive Steve McGill following a profits warning on 26 November has again focused attention on the broker's US expansion strategy.

A year after the UK regulator Financial Services Authority issued a consumer warning against the dubious insurer Centennial Insurance Company - or CIC - the British Columbia Financial Institutions Commission ordered the company to stop doing business in t

The Insurance Insider has learnt that Brian Jackson, active underwriter on up-for-sale St Paul Syndicate 779, is in advanced negotiations for a deal that would see business novate to Lloyd's managing agency Jubilee.

RISK executives criticised in court defeat - but agency fights back with press A heady cocktail of collusion, doctored documents and "implausible" testimony came to light last month after judgement was handed down in a fraud dispute between German rein

Lloyd's-backed platform side-lined as broker goes to market with its own connectivity Brokers Aon is set to shake up the London Market IT consensus by launching an alternative to Kinnect, the Lloyd's funded platform designed to allow electronic transf