December 2005/1

French (re)insurer SCOR will take up membership of the pools Réunion Aérienne and the Réunion Spatiale on 1 January 2006. SCOR, whose application to join the pools was accepted in November, will take a 5 percent share of each pool.

Loss adjusters Crawford & Company announced that it has purchased a 26 percent interest in loss adjusting and claims settlement firm Indian Puri Anuj & Associates. The move is expected to provide additional service delivery capabilities to support...

Brokers Marsh & McLennan has “restructured, refinanced and refocused its sales force” and is ready to grow again after suffering a rough year post-Spitzer, according to an analyst. Morgan Stanley analyst William Wilt said he sees the company as a...

Two former Benfield brokers have given undertakings to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) that they will not carry out any regulated activity for two years. The two brokers, Robert Phillips and Isabel Rawlence, helped design and place a Loss...

Heritage Underwriting Agency has forecast a loss for the full year with its net asset value per share dropping by 15 percent as a result. The group’s estimate for hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma net losses on Syndicate 1245 is £3.7mn. This has...

Brit Insurance has become the latest (re)insurer to raise capital in expectation of 2006’s improved underwriting conditions. The firm announced that it has agreed to raise £150mn tier two long-term subordinated debt. As well as enabling Brit to take...

Despite raising sufficient capital to ensure a capacity of £150mn on its Syndicate 780 next year, Advent Capital has seen ratings agency Moody’s downgrade its rating on the syndicate following the devastating losses from this year’s storms.

Lloyd’s insurer Kiln has increase its 3Q storm losses, adding £10mn to Katrina exposures and reporting an initial range for Hurricane Wilma of £7.5mn to £12.5mn. In total Kiln now estimates that the pre-tax cost of these three hurricanes for its...

Losses to the Lloyd’s market from the trio of devastating hurricanes this year will top $5bn, according to latest estimates revealed last Wednesday (30 November). The Society also admitted that the likelihood of turning a 2005 profit was now...

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital has announced the establishment of a new Excess & Surplus (E&S) unit within its XL Insurance division. The new unit will be headed by newly appointed E&S president John M DiBiasi, and will underwrite through Indian...

Atrium Underwriting today (5 December) reported its latest forecasts for 2003 and 2004 years of account on syndicates 570 and 609 and updated its hurricane losses for this year. The account year forecasts for managed syndicates are materially...

Pressure is growing on senior management at Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital after recent comments by equity analysts and rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) – which last Monday (28 November) downgraded the company by a notch from AA- to A+.