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December 2009/2

  • Skinner joins Validus board; Malik joins ARS; Kane hires Aon exec
  • Q-Re gains Qatar's first reinsurance licence; Validus cements Singapore presence; Willis shareholders rubber stamp Ireland move
  • Typhoon Melor, which made landfall as a category one storm in Japan during October, has resulted in incurred claims of Yen55bn ($617mn), according to an announcement by the General Insurance Association of Japan last week.
  • Global accountancy firm Ernst & Young has warned that the initial draft of the UK government's proposed one-off windfall tax on bankers' bonuses casts a far wider net over UK financial services firms, including Lloyd's managing agents.
  • There have only been ten holders of Lloyd's silver medals in the market's long history, but last week an 11th recipient was honoured in the form of retiring Lloyd's Franchise Performance Director Rolf Tolle.
  • A Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) to enable clearly defined natural catastrophe/weather related insurance cover for the developing world was launched last week by units of the World Bank.
  • US "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg has capped the annual cash salaries for American International Group (AIG) employees at $500,000 as part of a move on "second tier" executive pay at bailed out corporations.
  • Bermudian Montpelier Re Holdings has launched a London-based managing general agent that will underwrite on behalf of its Lloyd's Syndicate 5151, together with other carriers.
  • A repeat of this year's benign Atlantic hurricane season - the calmest in 12 years - looks unlikely if the long range forecasts are accurate.
  • Lobbyists for European risk managers have lent Brussels broad support for its insurance block exemption requirements (BER) draft, despite concern that some changes could create legal uncertainty.
  • The aviation market has reacted with disappointment to the most important renewal of the year - Air France/KLM - despite indications for underlying rate rises of around 23 percent, sister title Inside FAC revealed last week.
  • Rating agencies and City analysts have taken opposing views over capital restructuring moves at Novae - only days after it hit out at the damage that rating agency models can inflict on nascent insurers.
  • Reinsurance broker BMS has said it is not in talks with TigerRisk about a potential acquisition of its business, reasserting a strategy for maintaining its independence.
  • Argo International appointed Paul Kneafsey as active underwriter of the liability division of its Lloyd's Syndicate 1200 last week, laying to rest speculation that he was poised to follow his erstwhile boss Mark Lawrence through the exit.
  • Bermudian (re)insurers Axis Capital and Arch have made substantial progress in their share buyback plans, with a new authorisation from the former to repurchase $500mn and news of $252mn of shares bought back in Q4 from the latter
  • The protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs are restraining 2010 premium increases to a 5 percent average, as their investment portfolios recover and shipowner members grapple with depressed freight markets.
  • Standard & Poor's (S&P) has upgraded the insurer financial strength and long-term counterparty credit ratings of Catlin Group's core subsidiaries by one notch to A, citing an "improved financial profile".
  • Property catastrophe reinsurance pricing for California earthquake perils is heading down 20 percent at the 1/1 renewals, The Insurance Insider has learned.
  • XL Capital and Max Capital have seen their stocks outperform almost all of their major competitors in 2009, reflecting the bounce back in investor sentiment for the two Bermudians.
  • Talks are thought to be continuing between Invesco, one of the largest investors in the Lloyd's insurance market, and Omega Insurance Holdings, despite a hiatus in the war of words.
  • Third-party capital will participate in each of the four syndicates approved to start writing business at Lloyd's in the new year.
  • Shares in the major broking groups failed to react to last week's news that the state of New York was paving the way for a return to contingent commissions, as negative sentiment weighed down their stocks.
  • The New York State Insurance Department has begun formally implementing changes to insurance regulation that could reintroduce the contingent commissions lost in the Spitzer era by as early as mid-January 2010.
  • Randall & Quilter (R&Q)'s confidential LMX commutation with Equitas may be welcomed by the firm's investors, but will do little to cheer other (re)insurers that were also delaying settlement with the Berkshire Hathaway-owned Lloyd's run-off vehicle.
  • Despite dragging Randall & Quilter (R&Q) to a full-year loss, today's settlement with Berkshire Hathaway's Equitas is a "positive" for the UK company, according to Numis Securities.
  • The overall reinsurance spend from AIG's global P&C operations - currently rebranding as Chartis - is expected to be higher year on year at the 1/1 renewal, sources have suggested to The Insurance Insider.