January 2007/5

UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance Group plc's (R&SA) attempt to cut itself free from its US run-off business was heard at a public meeting last Friday (19 January).

A group of reinsurers which have been joined to Allianz over legal proceedings regarding a controversial North Korean claim have refused to acknowledge the lawsuit.

Nick Frankland, has been appointed as CEO of reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter’s UK operations following David Priebe’s return to the US as head of Global Specialty Group.

Bermudian (re)insurer White Mountains Insurance Group announced today (22 January) that Ray Barrette has taken over from Steve Fass as CEO and Jack Byrne as chairman.

Insured US catastrophe losses were down to $9bn last year, according to figures published by ISO’s Property Claim Services (PCS) on 16 January.

The board of US giant American International Group (AIG) has elected Dan Glaser as senior vice president, Foreign General Insurance.

The acquisitive broker USI Holdings Corp has itself succumbed to a take-out offer after agreeing terms with the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs & Co last week.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide has estimated insured losses from windstorm Kyrill will be $5.2-10.4bn.

Hannover Re has re-visited the capital markets in order to boost its Kaith Re "K5" securitisation to $520mn and expand its underwriting capacity.

Senior management at Windsor plc, the UK-quoted insurance broker, made public the terms of their £33.7mn acquisition proposal for the firm this morning (22 January).

Validus Holdings Ltd and Greenlight Capital Re Ltd became the third and fourth reinsurers formed after Hurricane Katrina to confirm plans for initial public offerings (IPO).

The Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) has called for comprehensive regulatory reform for reinsurance this year.