February 2013/2

US P&C insurers quickly put Sandy to one side and set straight back onto the path of capital management in Q4 earnings announcements.17

Return on equity (RoE) across the Bermudian (re)insurance sector has so far averaged in the high single digits for 2012 - typically not thought of as an adequate return for the amount of risk assumed.

The pace of capital management is set to pick up in early 2013 as repatriation plans postponed in the aftermath of Sandy return to the forefront of (re)insurers' minds.

The Insurance Insider runs down some of the potential buyers that it would approach if it was running the auction.

Arch is in line to become the ninth managing agent to join Lloyd's China, just weeks after Brit secured approval, The Insurance Insider understands.

Australian insurer IAG is close to making reinsurance recoveries on its catastrophe programme after taking A$120mn-A$140mn of insured losses from Tropical Cyclone Oswald.

Reinsurers and brokers must adapt to large sophisticated buyers of reinsurance increasingly centralising their reinsurance spend, said Willis Re chairman James Vickers.

Tom Bolt, the former Berkshire Hathaway executive charged with guarding underwriting standards on Lime Street, has responded to criticism of the growing trend of (re)insurers' managing third-party capital.

Hiscox is set to unveil a set of new industry specific professional liability (PL) policy forms this week that it says will target underserved areas of the market as it looks to build its book of business in the US.

Lloyd's insurer Hardy Underwriting weighed on CNA's fourth quarter results with a hefty 153.8 percent combined ratio and a $26mn loss for the period.

TigerRisk has continued to build its Florida client book by winning the United Property & Casualty Insurance Company account from rival reinsurance broker BMS.

The perennially controversial topic of broker remuneration resurfaced last week as two industry heavyweights voiced concerns about the practice of brokers charging insurers for services they perform on their behalf.