January 2005/4

In the January 2005 edition of The Insurance Insider, we refer to the JLT executive Jonathan Marland as the Conservative MP for Somerton & Frome. This is a mistake. He is the Conservative candidate for Somerton & Frome.

Houston Casualty Company has merged its medical stop loss and group life insurance underwriting agency, HCC Benefits Corporation, into its life insurance arm, HCC Life Insurance Company (HCC Life).

Less than a year after joining Aspen Re as chief risk officer, Adrian Ballardie has left the reinsurer to join Tokio Marine Global as chief underwriting officer.

The Japanese government will increase its limit for earthquake reinsurance payments for the first time in three years, according to the Daily Yomiuri newspaper.

Nigel Hanbury, the chief executive of Lloyd’s members’ agent Hampden Agencies, has been elected to the Society’s ruling body, the Lloyd’s Council.

Equity analysts at investment bank KBW have taken a neutral stance in their 2005 sector overview of European insurers, citing the end of the hard market, possible non-life reserve shocks and the fact that any good news on the sector has already been price

Equitas has expressed its opposition to the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (FAIR) over fears that the proposed US legislation would fail to protect the run-off vehicle from going bankrupt.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decided to leave (re)insurer Alea’s ratings unchanged last week, despite the group’s revelation that deteriorating results on pre-2003 US casualty business and the heavy hurricane losses would add between five and se

Former Jardine Lloyd Thompson chief executive Steve McGill vowed that he will make a swift return to the London market while speaking at a Lloyd’s lecture last week.

The dormant Reinsurance Australia Corporation, ReAC, is set to rebrand and begin underwriting – five years after it was brought to its knees by the low rates and high casualty losses of the late nineties.

Brit to pay outstanding claims

Insurers’ discipline appears to hold