December 2012/3

Weekly share price movements and key data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers and brokers

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has reinsured yet another tranche of longevity risk with Munich Re covering liabilities worth £400mn.

With reinsurers piling on the pressure following major losses to the International Group (IG) reinsurance programme, protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs may choose to increase their attachment points at the next renewal in order to offset premium increases, according to Willis Global Marine's annual P&I review, released last week.

White Mountains' specialist run-off acquisition arm has agreed to buy a third American International Group (AIG) unit in six months as the Bermudian continues to make its presence felt in the legacy sector.

Bermudian (re)insurer Argo has awarded Shelbourne the contract to provide a whole account quota share for the prior-year reserves on its Lloyd's Syndicate 1200.

A UK appeals court has refused to allow insurers of a US industrial firm to use an English court to instruct a Pennsylvania district judge in an asbestos-related legal dispute that spans the UK and US.

Global broker Aon has answered a complaint brought by a former employee that sought to free him from his non-solicitation agreement by arguing that the court should not provide injunctive relief.

R&Q Reinsurance Company has accused Sentry Insurance of providing late notification of underlying asbestos-related and fire losses on two facultative reinsurance contracts.

The UK Competition Commission (CC) is to focus its investigation into private motor insurance on the moral hazard of separating cost liability from cost control, which can unfairly push up insurance rates.

American International Group (AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche has urged global regulators not to issue blanket increases to the amount of capital that insurers deemed "too big to fail" are required to hold.

The Obama administration has asked US Congress to grant the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) an additional $9.7bn in borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Swiss Re has redeemed two tranches of its Vita Capital IV extreme mortality cat bond worth $125mn one year ahead of maturity, sister publication Trading Risk reported.

Two private bonds are currently circulating the market, according to sources, as well as an offering from Zurich.

Swiss Re says new levels of stability in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) investor base could help reduce spread volatility and make pricing more predictable and stable.

Strong demand for retro cover has inspired Everest Re to launch "Purple", a new pillared retro product being marketed for the January 2013 renewals.

Senior executives of failed US banks should not assume their directors' and officers' (D&O) insurance policies will automatically cover them in lawsuits brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) because of "insured versus insured" exclusions, according to Bass, Berry & Simms lawyers Britt Latham and Jason Hale.

The pace of US federal securities class action lawsuits has been maintained since 2007, with a rise in M&A objection lawsuits offsetting a fall in credit crisis-related litigation.

RSA has surprised the market with a late move to recast its cat programme by creating a main multi-territory £1.5bn ($2.4bn) tower, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Zurich Insurance Group dealt a blow to its catastrophe reinsurers as it posted $758mn of net losses from Superstorm Sandy, including $58mn of reinstatement premiums.

Underwriters on the first $500mn excess layer of the IG reinsurance programme have incurred losses of some $800mn in the past two underwriting years, analysis from The Insurance Insider suggests

Torus has folded Syndicate 2243 into Syndicate 1301 to create a single Lloyd's platform for 2013, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The Project Darwin process has highlighted that market reform at Lloyd's must be led from within the market rather than imposed from the top-down if it is to succeed, Lloyd's CEO Richard Ward has said.

Apollo and CVC Partners, the private equity owners of Brit Insurance, expect to receive in excess of £250mn in special distributions as the transformation into a dedicated Lloyd's business yields capital benefits.

JLT is set to launch a new directors' and officers' (D&O) insurance product that will carry multi-year policy terms, The Insurance Insider has learned.

As Bermudians go to the polls today (17 December) in the general election, the island's (re)insurance community is adamant it will be business as usual, whatever the outcome.

Au revoir Paris; Joachim Eur252mn; AIG sell-down; RSA negative; Berkshire up; Beazley $90mn; Sandy could cost (re)insurers $30bn; Eckert joins Gallagher; Integro makes Rule acquisition; Brown & Brown gets R&B; Special week for WR Berkley;  Talbot in XL hire; Endurance promotes; Generali restructure; Aquiline acquires; ICAT moves...

Q-Re LLC, the ambitious Qatari reinsurance firm that is rolling out a European platform after a series of audacious hires from Lloyd's (re)insurer Novae, has entered into a major new IT contract with the London market back office provider Xchanging.

Reported Sandy losses have topped $10.4bn after Zurich Insurance Group and HCC Insurance unveiled preliminary estimates for the storm's impact.

We in the (re)insurance sector are generally practical and difficult to frighten, and are rarely prone to bouts of mass hysteria.

Shortly after withdrawing a significant amount of limit from the market in its recent reinsurance restructuring, American International Group (AIG) has returned to premium-starved carriers to purchase a quota share treaty for its underperforming US casualty portfolio.