February 2006/5

The legacy of the infamous workers’ compensation carve-out saga of the late nineties came back to haunt US healthcare insurer Cigna Corp last week after an adverse ruling from a London arbitration panel rule.

Insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is facing a lawsuit from Minnesota attorney general Mike Hatch, raising the spectre of further action from states dissatisfied with AIG’s recent $1.6bn payout. Hatch is seeking up to $10mn...

The film finance trial between defunct insurer HIH and its broker JLT Risk Solutions came to an early conclusion last week. As predicted in this month’s The Insurance Insider the trial ended early after the withdrawal by of fraud allegations by HIH.

Australian-based (re)insurer QBE declared an increase in final dividend from 30 cents to 38 cents a share after announcing record results, with pre-tax net profit up 37 percent to A$1.5bn. After-tax operating profits were up 27 percent from...

Fast expanding Hyperion Insurance Group reported a double boost today with the announcement of an almost doubling of profits followed by news of a £5.1mn capital placement in the insurance group. Hyperion reported full-year profits of £4.03mn for...

Bermudian Platinum Underwriters Holdings became the latest reinsurer to announce hurricane-affected losses in its fourth quarter and full-year results for 2005. Platinum reported net losses of $103.3mn, or $1.94 per basic common share, and a net loss..

Lloyd’s reinsurer Advent Capital (Holdings) plc has increased its Hurricane Wilma net loss estimates and is predicting a midpoint loss of 77.5 percent of capacity on its Syndicate 780’s 2005 underwriting year. The catastrophe reinsurance specialist...

Lloyd’s listed insurer Wellington Underwriting plc revealed Friday (24 February) that its underwriting agency will make a cash call to capital providers on its Syndicate 2020 of $190mn as a result of last year’s hurricanes.

The UK arm of broking giant Aon has revealed plans to leave the City for Docklands, with talks ongoing for a new London office at Canary Wharf. The firm – which employs 2000 people in the UK - said it was in exclusive negotiations with Canary Wharf...

Further downgrades and widening losses as woes mount for reinsurer. The future for PXRE looks bleak, as the troubled reinsurer saw its ratings sink further down the scale after reporting fourth quarter 2005 net losses of $447mn on the back of...

US cedants will have to increase their capital requirements if Europe’s reinsurance industry gets its way and has the controversial collateralisation requirements abolished. The US’ reinsurance collateral system was again the subject of debate last...

Employment Practices Liability (EPL) will soon become essential for employers as the rising tide of discrimination laws and compensation awards make employment law the next big area for legal claims. That was the message from Cath Thorpe...