January 2004/1

Marsh’s cost reduction drive Fortunate recipients of bonuses greater than $50,000 could be forgiven for feeling somewhat bitter sweet at broking giant Marsh. According to one Marsh confidante, some of the higher US annual bonuses were accompanied wi

It’s not just analysts who made their predictions for 2004 – brokers also took a view on business conditions over the next 12 months. For Aon, the New Year was about resolutions – and to back up the message it published a "to-do" list for the insurance

Insurance analysts are taking mixed positions on the industry’s fortunes with Europeans seemingly less confident on prospects, The Insurance Insider discovers 2004 is likely to be marked by premium growth in the high single digits, with a continuing bu

US giant property casualty insurer The Hartford announced on 19 December that it had agreed a $1.15bn global claims settlement for asbestos exposures to MacArthur Company and its Western MacArthur subsidiary. In a statement, the insurer said the agreem

Bermudian casualty insurer XL Capital Ltd revealed a higher than expected $647mn post-tax charge for Q3 2003. In a press release the company said the charge, which followed a claims audit and year-end reserve review, was "primarily related to adverse deve

Disagreements between Lloyd's underwriting supremo Rolf Tolle and Berkshire Hathaway led to the latter slashing the size of its Lloyd's subsidiary Marlborough, The Insider can reveal.

Cavell Management services Ltd, the Norwich based run-off company recently acquired by former Eastgate duo Ken Randall and Alan Quilter, is set to win the contract to run-off GoshawK’s Syndicate 102. According to sources, after final presentations from a

Swiss Re's decision to stop writing a significant amount of Lloyd's reinsurance business is unrelated to the Central Fund coverage dispute, the Zurich headquartered reinsurer said last month. As revealed in the December edition of Insider Week's siste

The insurance business appears quite good these days. Premiums have gone up sharply for several years. Reasonably well-capitalized property-casualty companies have to do something very wrong to achieve poor accident-year results. You'd probably call this

The parent of disgraced broker Stirling Cooke Brown has applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while revealing that its largest creditor is London law firm Richards Butler. Richards Butler advised Stirling Cooke Brown in the marathon legal battle

Peter Matson, the veteran Lloyd's underwriter, has joined SVB Holdings Plc after completing his notice period with former employer Brit. Matson formally joined SVB on the 19 January and will reunite with some of his former PRI Ltd colleagues, including fi

Another loss struck year for the troubled space insurance sector was rounded off in farcical fashion with the revelation that a Loral-built SPAINSAT satellite was “dropped” during testing, leading to a potential $95mn claim on the London cargo market.