December 2006/2

Equitas’ senior executives will share a bonus pool of £10.4mn once the landmark agreement with Berkshire Hathaway is finalised.

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has written to chief executives of brokers highlighting their responsibility to disclose commissions when requested by clients, in compliance with its Insurance Conduct of Business (ICOB) rules.

The North Korean government is attempting to collect on fraudulent reinsurance claims from international (re)insurers, according to reports in the US media.

US giant American International Group (AIG) and CV Starr, the managing agency controlled by its former chairman and CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, have settled the legal disputes stemming from the termination of their business relationship.

Atrium Underwriting became the latest Lloyd’s (re)insurer to release an upbeat trading statement on 7 December, including an improvement on its 2004 year of account.

Lloyd’s insurer Kiln plc said pricing across it specialist underwriting portfolio continues to be strong in a trading statement released today (11 December).

Forecasters Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) have warned that 2007 will mark a return to the over-active hurricane seasons that the Atlantic has become familiar with in recent years.

A US appeals court has blocked a class action lawsuit that alleged banks committed fraud in the IPOs of stocks, typically technology companies.

Lockton International has swooped for senior Marsh duo Chris Brown, the head of risk management for its Europe, Middle East and Africa division, and Neil Nimmo, the head of its London based financial and professional lines operations (FINPRO) practice, In

US hurricane and catastrophe reinsurance prices are expected to rise about 30 percent in the 1/1 renewals according to German giant Munich Re.

Barclays Bank has been reinstated as a defendant in an Enron investor fraud suit by a US judge who gave shareholders a new opportunity to portray the bank’s role in the company’s collapse.

Liberty Syndicates - one of the largest Lloyd’s (re)insurers – has reduced its underwriting capacity for 2007 by £187mn.