January 2006/5

Shares in run-off (re)insurance group Alea Group Holdings slumped almost twenty percent in early trading this morning after the group predicted a full-year loss of $200mn-$240mn.

The UK insurance outsourcing company Rubicon Corporation has appointed Kroll Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Group as administrators after experiencing trading difficulties.

Musical chairs among the senior London market underwriting associations saw the chairman and chief executive of ACE’s European operations Andrew Kendrick replace Brit’s Dane Douetil as chairman of the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA).

The UK Court of Appeal has this morning (26 January) overturned a ruling that insurers should pay out on claims filed by people suffering from pleural plaques, a condition it had been suggested could lead to serious asbestos-related diseases such as...

Lloyd’s “plumbing” system of outdated, paper-based processes is so unwieldy and inefficient and weighed down with the “sewage” of so many unsigned wording, delays and errors that its "customers can’t bear the stink", according to Alex Letts CEO of...

The UK insurance outsourcing company Rubicon Corporation has appointed Kroll Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Group as administrators after experiencing trading difficulties. Established in late 2000 by the former chief executive of...

Sovereign Risk Insurance Ltd – the political risk joint initiative between Bermudian giants ACE Ltd and XL Capital Ltd - will become wholly owned by ACE from the 1 February.

Lloyd’s decision to terminate the Kinnect project came just over a week after the Corporation unveiled a new strategic plan which creates a vision of the Society being a low cost insurance platform.

Lloyd’s has closed its controversial electronic platform Kinnect after spending an estimated £70mn+, and over four years of development time, on the ill-fated system.

In a critical year for UK commercial insurers to demonstrate compliance with the regulatory imposed deadlines on contract certainty, Brit Insurance Holdings plc has stolen a march on its peers by announcing that it has reached 75 percent compliance...

Veteran London market figure Graham White and Ewen Gilmour, the chief executive of Chaucer Syndicates Ltd, have won the election to become members of the Council of Lloyd’s.

The owners of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi are suing two of the company’s property insurers for refusing to settle their share of the complex’s $175mn damage claim following Hurricane Katrina.

US insurance giant St Paul said it will update shareholders on its asbestos liabilities next week following Friday’s verdict in the US Court of Appeals which reinstated an old asbestos-related insurance suit against the company.

Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen has been removed from ratings review with negative implications by AM Best, which has affirmed the firm’s A- (Excellent) financial strength rating. The rating agency also affirmed Aspen’s insurer credit rating of...

Seven changes are expected to Converium’s board of directors when shareholders meet in April for the company’s Annual General Meeting. In keeping with previous indications chairman Peter Colombo will step down from his position on 11 April.

Marsh Inc’s new chief executive Brian Storms will spend much of the next month on the road as he travels across the globe to meet his business heads and rally the broking giant’s troops. The former Mercer Human Resource Consulting chief executive...

Hedge fund backed Glacier Re has received a boost from AM Best with news that the rating agency has affirmed it’s A- (excellent) financial strength rating. Glacier Re – which begun trading a year ago – was feared to be badly struck by...

Amlin has advised it is not currently supporting the London market space consortium being supported by Liberty Syndicates, despite the suggestion to the contrary in January’s edition of The Insurance Insider. We are happy to clarify this.

Hurricane hit Bermudian property catastrophe specialist PXRE revealed last week that it has entered into a second $200mn letter of credit facility with Citibank Ireland Financial Services plc. Under the One-year secured facility with Citibank...

World’s biggest insurer American International Group (AIG) may have to pay $10mn to executive vice chairman and chief operating officer Donald Kanak who is leaving the company at the end of the month, after less than a year in the role.

London market broker Howden has promoted Andy Bragoli to the role of group broking director. Specialising in liability and crime insurance, Howden is the broking arm of fast expanding insurer Hyperion Insurance Group.

Hannover Re was boosted last week with the news that rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) had affirmed its AA- insurer financial strength and long-term counterparty credit ratings on the German reinsurer, removing them from CreditWatch with...

Former Credit Lyonnais chairman Jean Peyrelevade has pleaded guilty to charges over false statements made to the US Federal Reserve during the bank’s acquisition of collapsed insurer Executive Life. Peyrelevade made his pleas in court...

Swiss Re’s strategy of bundling up its risk exposures and selling them on to the capital markets took a step further today (23 January), when the reinsurance giant announced it had completed an innovative EUR252mn credit reinsurance securitization.