January 2006/4

Lloyd’s insurers Talbot Underwriting and Cathedral Underwriting have pointed out that they have not currently agreed to back the $250mn+ London market space consortium being supported by Liberty Syndicates, despite the suggestion to the contrary in...

World’s biggest insurer American International Group (AIG) announced last night (18 January) that its executive vice chairman and chief operating officer Donald Kanak is leaving the company at the end of the month, after less than a year in the role.

Seven changes are expected to Converium’s board of directors when shareholders meet in April for the company’s Annual General Meeting.

Swiss Re is planning to shed 10-15 percent of its workforce after completing the takeover of GE Insurance Solutions (GEIS) in a $7.6bn deal.

Reinsurance broker Benfield Group predicted better than expected revenues for 2006 on the back of rising reinsurance rates in 2006 and 2007. In a 12 January trading statement, the broker said that it now expected 2006 turnover to grow...

Bermudian reinsurer Everest Re announced yesterday (12 January) that it is raising pre-tax loss estimates from last year’s trio of hurricanes by $200mn to $1.2bn, net of reinstatements. The company now expects the after-tax...

Kiln plc has become the first Lloyd’s insurer to ask third party capital providers to put up additional capital to cover losses from last year’s storms. Members of Syndicate 557’s 2005 underwriting year are being asked to contribute...

Benfield’s head of aerospace reinsurance, Stephen May, is set to leave the group only weeks after it was announced the company would be the co-broker on an innovative $250mn space consortium. According to the broker, May will leave the company...

As exclusively revealed by our sister publication The Insurance Insider on Friday (13 January), Lloyd's has unveiled its vision for the marketplace, which may see differential charging for the Central Fund and a number of other significant reforms...

Run-off services provider CMGL has launched a fraud investigations unit under the auspices of John Halls, who returns to the company after six years at Omni Whittington and Axiom.

2005 was a terrific year for European insurance stocks, but investors should now prefer the life sector, over property & casualty, warned analysts at Merrill Lynch.

French reinsurer SCOR has hinted at a strong renewals season saying the group has improved its "positioning" by experiencing "satisfactory conditions on all the markets (excluding the United States) on which the Group operates".