December 2009/3

Despite reinsurance loss ratios of 300+ percent for the 2007-08 years, financial institutions (FI) professional indemnity rates may come under pressure in a year's time.

John Lapsley, the former driving force behind Benfield Corporate Risk (BCR)and more recently chairman of global energy & marine at Aon Specialty, has left "to pursue other interests", Aon confirmed last week.

The perennial dilemma of keeping both shareholders and rating agencies happy reappeared last week, with AM Best warning Bermudian (re)insurers about the potentially "grave" opportunity cost of prematurely returning capital in 2010.

Fledgling US and international broker Integro last week announced the acquisition of William E. Kelly Agency, Inc., a specialist high net worth personal lines and yacht agency based in Mamaroneck, New York.

The escalating cost of cover taken out for US financial services sector executives in the wake of the Wall Street crash of 2008 has started to ease, according to Aon Risk Services (ARS).

UK legal reformers have proposed an overhaul of disclosure laws to bolster the rights of insurance consumers, and are set to turn their attention to business insurance law next year.

Giving some succour to complaints this year that the soft market is being perpetuated by desperate (re)insurers keen to maintain market share was a report last week from Fitch Ratings.

The London insurance market effectively grew to more than £25bn in 2008 as it wrote more international and reinsurance business.

The satellite (re)insurance market is at its weakest since 2001 despite last week's major Orbcomm settlement.

The US property and casualty industry is now "solidly entrenched in the soft phase of the market cycle", and a material improvement in pricing "does not appear imminent", according to Fitch Ratings.

Aon Risk Services (ARS) saw off competition from rival Willis to buy FCC Global Insurance Services - the in-house broker for giant Spanish construction and infrastructure management firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC).

Consultancy Towers Perrin has warned that US tort costs are poised to escalate driven in part by errors and omissions (E&O) liabilities connected with the 2008 financial crisis