January 2005/4

The Munich Re Group now expects to see 2004 profits of between €1.7bn-€1.9bn after an associated company revealed write-downs of €2.5bn in its annual financial statements.

Insurers’ discipline appears to hold

Figures released by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) have revealed the continuing impact of Hurricane Ivan on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.

Insurers AIG, ACE and Aegis have settled their share of energy losses claimed by oil giant BP.

XL Capital became one of the first insurers to provide specific guidance on the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami when predicting a pre-tax net loss of $75mn last week.

The Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal vowed to launch a series of legal actions over alleged insurance industry abuses when he filed a lawsuit against Marsh and ACE Ltd last week.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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).