December 2004/3

US insurer Cigna has announced that it will pay the State of Connecticut more than $870,000 after an investigation by state attorney general Richard Blumenthal revealed it had concealed improper commission payments to a broker.

Now medical and legal malpractice insurers in firing line Eliot Spitzer's probe into the insurance industry widened further last week with the news that legal and medical insurers were now under the investigative spotlight, following recent large incre

Bermudian headquartered (re)insurer Catlin saw its share price slip by 21p from 370p to 349p after it revealed a $25mn deterioration on its hurricane loss estimates last Friday (10 December) caused by higher than expected claims on energy installations in

UK broker Windsor plc revealed its brokerage revenues had increased by 5 percent to £18.96mn to the year-end 30 September 2004 on the back of a “stable” UK insurance market.

Lloyd’s insurer Atrium announced improvements in its latest syndicate forecast updates last Tuesday (7 December), along with a fall in estimates for losses from the hurricane season.

Lloyd’s has announced that Lord Levene will serve a second term as chairman of the corporation.

Insurance fraudster Martin Frankel was sentenced to a reduced 17 years imprisonment last week after he promised to help the US authorities track down the $200mn he stole from a series of insurance companies.

One of the world’s worst kept secrets finally became public last week when New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer announced plans to run for state governor.

The recent flows of hedge fund capital into the (re)insurance sector may spark the industry’s decline into the next soft market, a leading US insurance analyst has warned.

Oxygen, the London market intermediary start-up formed this year, (see Insider Week No 142), last week announced the first team to join its Sian Fisher headed agency business.

Bermuda based (re)insurer XL has confirmed the appointment of Peter Bilsby as senior vice-president of its aviation arm. Bilsby, who will join the company early in 2005, is currently on gardening leave from his present position as joint managing director

Insurers may be on the hook for an additional $1.1bn The jury in the second round of WTC insurance litigation last week delivered its verdict in favour of the building's leaseholder Larry Silverstein.

(Re)insurers’ profitability continues to be threatened by the uncertainty of reinsurance disputes, a leading US lawyer has warned.

Quanta, the youngest of the post-9/11 start-ups, confirmed one of the market’s worst kept secrets last Thursday (9 December) as it announced the formation of a new £80mn capacity specialty lines syndicate at Lloyd’s under the leadership of Mark Wheeler an

A $300mn European reinsurance start-up is set to launch tomorrow, Insider Week can reveal.