January 2008/3

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter is to set up an office to capitalise on the growing central and eastern European market.

Run-off (re)insurer Alea Group Holdings has agreed to "fully and finally" commute all exposures under an excess-of-loss reinsurance treaty which will see the firm record a net loss of around $8.8mn in the 2007 fourth quarter.

Ex-Heath Lambert executive Hugh Champion has taken up his new post as director of rival broker RFIB Group Ltd, after leaving the up-for-sale broker last year.

Former General Re senior vice president Richard Napier has lifted the lid on the allegedly sham finite reinsurance deal with American International Group.

Ratings agency Moody's has downgraded the senior secured debt ratings of giant bond insurer MBIA Inc, on the back of "various financial developments and capital initiatives" recently announced by the firm.

Aquiline Capital Partners could lose as much as 95 percent of its investment in its Dublin-based Structured Credit Company (SCC), as the credit default underwriting firm became another victim of the meltdown in the debt markets.

Lloyd's insurer Amlin plc has seen its premium income drop 7 percent so far at the January renewals reflecting weaker market conditions.

Trading Risk, the new publication from the publishers of The Insurance Insider and Insider Week, launches tomorrow (15 January).

The US did not "dodge a bullet" in the 2007 hurricane season, by escaping with minor damage from the landfall of Hurricanes Dean and Felix, according to risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR).

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has appointed Sally Dewar as new managing director of wholesale.

Angus Simpson has resigned as managing director of London market broker Glencairn Ltd after 10 years at the firm.

Derivatives platform Insurance Futures Exchange Services (IFEX) which began trading in US hurricanes as futures contracts last September, now has cumulative trading volumes totalling more than $31mn of (re)insurance limit, equivalent to 3,100 lots, it rev