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.

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.

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

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...

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".

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.

Insurance giant ZFS is mulling over a significant German acquisition, according to sources. The Zurich-headquartered firm – which has been widely tipped to participate in M&A activity this year – is thought to be considering a mid-tier...

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital has revealed another management change with the announcement Friday (13 January) that John Welch has been promoted to president and chief operating officer at its subsidiary XL Reinsurance America Inc (XLRA).

Hurricane-hit US insurer Allstate has trebled the cost of its reinsurance programme from $200mn to $600mn as it changes strategy to prevent a repeat of 2005’s losses having the same negative impact.