February 2010/3

The head-on collision of two Belgian commuter trains this morning (15 February) is understood to be covered by the private insurance market, with a local programme in force to cover the liabilities of state-owned railway operator SNCB.

Discussions over a deal for London market electronic trading platform RI3K have reached advanced stages, and The Insurance Insider understands that global IT providers Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell have joined IBM in outlining offers.

Allied World has substantially exceeded analyst earning projections after it joined its peers in recovering strongly from a cat hit 2008.

Full-year results to date suggest that 2009 was a year of solid recovery for the (re)insurance industry, with healthier investment performance and modest underwriting gains helping companies find their way back to profit.

Catastrophe modelling firm Eqecat estimates that the winter storms that struck the eastern US coast in the past week will cost insurers more than $2bn.

The total insured loss from the hangar that collapsed under the weight of snow at Dulles airport in Washington last week, crushing the aircraft inside, has been estimated at up to $440mn, The Insurance Insider understands.

Analysts from Morgan Stanley believe sovereign defaults from Eurozone members or other developed countries are "extremely unlikely", and consider insurers well placed to ride out the current sovereign debt storm.

A damning internal report has identified widespread malpractice in the management of the London Market Group (LMG)'s flagship eAccounting project, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Former RenaissanceRe executives Bill Riker and Michael Cash have completed their first collateralised reinsurance transactions for Q Re (Bermuda) Ltd - a new, class 3 Bermudian reinsurer backed by legendary investor George Soros.