December 2006/2

Advent Capital Holdings has become the latest Lloyd’s (re)insurer to unveil plans for a Bermudian platform, Advent Re, which will write retrocessional business.

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.

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.

Despite a bullish investor presentation in early December by Marsh & McLennan (MMC), analysts continue to question the ability of the company’s management to unlock value from its “diverse” operating subsidiaries.

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

Zurich American Insurance Co has finalised its settlements with 11 states, as well as the District of Columbia, resolving allegations of bid rigging, price fixing and misuse of finite risk products.

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

The EU needs to engage with more companies as it consults about the implementation of Solvency II the proposed new capital requirements for insurers across the EU, according to financial services company Deloitte.

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.

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...

Following the close of the benign 2006 North Atlantic hurricane season at the end of November, Bermudian reinsurers are anticipating reaping record profits, according to the latest Benfield Bermuda Quarterly (BBQ) report.