February 2014/3

US-listed (re)insurance shares had a strong week with an average gain of 3.05 percent, reversing losses of the previous week.

The European peer group reported an average 1.1 percent share price gain last week, dragged down by the near 8 percent deterioration to RSA's share price.

Global broker stocks generally performed well last week as the reporting season for the subset came to a close.

Catlin was the only Lloyd's carrier to outperform the benchmark performance of the FTSE 100 last week, while the remainder saw mixed fortunes.

The US farm bill that secures the future of the US crop insurance programme for the next five years was signed into law by President Obama earlier this month, in a move expected to expand the scheme by $5.7bn between now and 2023.

The end may finally be in sight for a scheme of arrangement to wind up the UK arm of run-off insurer Highlands Insurance Company UK (HUK).

HomeServe, the UK personal lines intermediary that styles itself as the fifth emergency service, has been hit with a heavy £31mn fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for serious and long-running customer service failings.

Insurance IT services provider Ebix has agreed to pay $6.5mn to settle a shareholder class action suit triggered by allegations of accounting irregularities in 2011.

QBE is suing a group of professional indemnity (PI) insurers led by subsidiaries of AIG and Allied World after they refused to pay claims related to investigations and lawsuits against QBE's force-placed lender insurance business Normal 0 fa

Catlin Group has created two reinsurance funds with internal capital as it weighs up whether to enter the third-party asset management space, according to the London-listed (re)insurer's founding CEO Stephen Catlin.

Munich Re is seeking to raise up to $100mn from a new Queen Street cat bond that will again cover Australian cyclone risk.

The retrocession market is now significantly more focused on aggregate capacity following the 1 January renewals as demand for occurrence covers shrank, according to Credit Suisse Asset Management's head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) Niklaus Hilti.

The 10 largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers now control almost $36bn of assets, a total which rose by 29 percent over the course of 2013, according to an exclusive survey by our sister publication Trading Risk. Normal 0 &

Despite dubbing 2013 the "year of the flood", Guy Carpenter said the year's catastrophe loss total of $40bn was significantly below the 10-year average of insurance nat cat losses.

Hurricanes may get the lion's share of press attention, but this has obscured a long-running increase in (re)insured losses from thunderstorms and tornadoes, according to Dr Robert Hartwig, economist and president of the Insurance Information Institute. Normal 0

Speculation now focuses on a less dilutive equity placing as UK insurer prepares to take its capital issues "off the table"

Positive rating momentum for US commercial P&C lines continued to lose steam in the final three months of 2013, according to the latest quarterly survey from the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB).

The large listed brokers generally reported solid organic growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, fuelled by robust expansion of their retail and insurance segments, while there was greater variance in reinsurance units as growth was held back by falling demand and rates.

With London-listed insurer Lancashire the last of our short-tail specialists to report, a mixed picture has emerged for the quartet in both top and bottom line 2013 performance after a strong year for results in the broker P&C (re)insurance sector.

The benefit of a relatively benign fourth quarter for cat losses compared to the Sandy-struck 2012 is clear to see in the Q4 2013 combined ratio analysis of our Bermuda composite of (re)insurers.

A significant expansion of the hours clause during the 1 January treaty renewals has made reinsurance losses more likely as severe weather continues to afflict the UK.

American International Group (AIG)'s operating earnings per share came in at $1.15 for the fourth quarter last week, comfortably ahead of the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.96, but the P&C result was described as "disappointing" by analysts.

Following a fresh £100mn distribution to its private equity backers Apollo and CVC, Brit Insurance has now handed back £540mn ($900mn) of capital to shareholders since the business was acquired in 2011 for £880mn.

Phil Hernon, a recently departed managing director at Enstar, has resurfaced at arch-rival Catalina, where he will become chief operating officer of the run-off acquirer's UK business, The Insurance Insider has learned.

Decus, the London-based wholesaler owned by US intermediary Brown & Brown, has appointed Aon Benfield executive Ross Ballantyne as its new CEO as it attempts to rebuild a senior management team depleted by high-profile departures.

Chaucer's UK insurance practice leader Kim Barber is set to retire at the end of March, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

US insurer HCC kept its estimated loss from Spanish construction surety claims unchanged during the final three months of 2013, reassuring investors worried by a large increase following loss development at fellow Spain-exposed underwriter XL Group.

Pine River Capital Management LP is in the process of raising up to $750mn to launch what would be the latest in a line of hedge fund-backed carriers to set up shop on Bermuda, Bloomberg News reported.

The rich multiples currently available to sellers of Lloyd's businesses have been underlined again after Q-Re's parent company, the Qatar Insurance Group (QIC), last week agreed to acquire Antares for a consideration believed to be around £180mn-£190mn.

Watkins unveils Singapore hires; Slimmer Citizens; Argo rebounds; NKSJ prospers; Tower deal on; ACR affirmed; Tower deal on; Catlin bear

Tokio Marine is seeking earthquake cover from the cat bond market with its latest issuance, Kizuna Re II, sister publication Trading Risk reported.

Japanese mega-mutual Zenkyoren (Zenk) has told reinsurers that it will look to buy significant new limit in excess of its current 690bn yen ($6.8bn) cat treaty, The Insurance Insider has learned.

It is an insurance truth universally acknowledged that a gentleman in possession of a modest fortune and an ambitious business plan must be in need of a Lloyd's managing agent.

The saga of Pdvsa's energy insurance purchasing looks set to come full circle, after the Venezuelan state energy company began talks with Cooper Gay about reinstating the broker it discarded last year, The Insurance Insider has learned.