December 2006/2

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...

Paul Milton, the chairman of Aon Professional Risks (APR), is set to retire from the organisation as Aon restructures the division’s reporting structures.

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.

Des Potter, the former head of insurance at Barclays Capital, joined Benfield Advisory Ltd on 4 December.

Randall & Quilter Group Investment Holdings Ltd (R&Q), the UK based acquirer of run-off businesses, confirmed last week that it had acquired its fifth run-off (re)insurer this year with the purchase of Ancon Insurance.

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.

Aon Ltd has won part of the global PricewaterhouseCoopers account from rival Marsh, Insider Week can reveal.

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

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

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.