December 2006/1

Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd has taken the innovative step of wrapping a credit derivative structure around a portfolio of its reinsurance recoverables, in a $420mn transaction with investment bank Deutsche Bank.

In a year that has seen ratings upgrades outstrip downgrades for the first time since 2000, Standard & Poor's (S&P) has upgraded Bermudian (re)insurer Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd from A- to A in response to growth in its US excess and surplus platfor

Lloyd’s insurer Ascot Underwriting has confirmed plans to increase capacity on its Syndicate 1414 by 13.5 percent to £625mn for the 2007 underwriting year.

The UK’s Competition Commission have ratified their decision to approve the acquisition of CBS Private Capital by rival Hampden Agencies Ltd.

Three US state attorney generals have written to (re)insurers telling them that they must end special commissions to agents and brokers as agreed in an earlier settlement.

Willis Group Holdings Limited is to lose a member of its senior management as the broker confirmed that Tom Colraine is to leave the firm after 18 years.

Benfield Group has gained $19.5mn from the sale of its “Class of 2005” reinsurer Lancashire Holdings last week.

Hiscox plc has become the first Lloyd’s insurer to carry out a sidecar transaction, confirming its Syndicate 33 has entered into a quota share reinsurance arrangement with $360mn Bermudian reinsurance vehicle Panther Re, a deal first revealed in the Octob

Lockton International, the former international operations of insurance broker Alexander Forbes, has swooped for the head of Marsh’s financial and professional lines operations, Neil Nimmo.

Private equity giant 3i Group plc has hired a team led by Bruce Carnegie-Brown, the former Marsh executive who left the firm suddenly in May this year.

The insurance services company Whittington Group has lost two key members of its senior management team with the sudden departure of deputy CEO Richard Whatton and business development director Stephanie Mocatta, Insider Week can reveal.

Bermudian (re)insurer Allied World Assurance Company Holdings (AWAC) has opened a box at Lloyd’s that it hopes will support the growth of its European book of business.