February 2006/1

SVB, the Lloyd’s based insurer wrestling with its legacy of US professional liability (re)insurance losses, revealed bold plans today (10 February) to form a new UK-based insurance company while finally dealing with its back-year losses.

American insurance giant AIG will today (9 February) announce a settlement of $1.6bn, resolving deception and accounting fraud charges with federal and state authorities.

Only a month after Lloyd’s unveiled an ambitious three-year strategic plan, the Corporation has parted company with its head of business strategy. Since joining Lloyd’s in 2003, Stuart Degg led the development of Lloyd’s repositioning itself...

Broker Willis has reported profits of $300mn for 2005, down 30 percent from $427mn the previous year on higher costs and the loss of so-called Placement Service Agreements or contingent commissions.

Analysts were divided in their reaction to the January renewal season advice that Hannover Re released yesterday (7 February) with a EUR11 difference in price targets set on its stock. The German reinsurer summed up this year’s renewal season...

XL Capital has unveiled its largest ever full year trading loss at $1.29bn following 2005’s devastating hurricane losses and the adverse Winterthur arbitration decision which cost the Bermudian giant a further $808.9mn.

Leading industry figure John Charman has cited his high profile divorce as the reason for his decision to step down from the company he founded, AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. Bermudian (re)insurer AXIS has confirmed that the former...

The UK Court of Appeal has sent a sigh of relief among London market insurers after over-turning last year’s controversial GoshawK vs Tyser decision which ruled brokers were not obliged to produce documents previously shown to underwriters.

Everest Re became the first of the Bermudians to roll out fourth quarter results, revealing on 30 January a $185.8mn, or $3.01 a share after-tax operating loss – a dramatic reversal of the $94.7mn, or $1.66 a share operating profit recorded in...

US insurance giant St Paul reported last Thursday (2 February) that its fourth quarter results for last year had plummeted 41 percent as the insurer was hit by reserve charges for asbestos and increasing hurricane costs.

“Class of 2005” alumni Validus revealed last week that it had written $220mn of gross written premiums in its maiden 1 January renewal season. The announcement would seem to contradict recent widespread comments that the new companies...

Christian Milton, the former head of reinsurance buying at insurance giant American International Group (AIG), and three former senior General Re executives, were indicted by a federal grand jury last week.