January 2008/3

The hard market party enjoyed by (re)insurers over the last few years may be ending, but it is not over yet, according to ABN AMRO analyst Joanna Parsons.

Aon Ltd completed as much as 80 percent of its London market 1 January treaty reinsurance renewal placements electronically through the RI3K trading platform, according to the broker.

Florida's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp, is mulling the prospect of buying reinsurance cover to protect itself against this year's hurricane season, Insider Week can reveal.

Risk modelling firm Risk Management Services (RMS) is launching a series of natural catastrophe indices for US wind and quake, and European windstorm under the banner Paradex.

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

Ron Sandler, the chairman of Bermudian insurer Ironshore Ltd and the former chief executive of Lloyd's, is poised to run the stricken UK bank, Northern Rock, if it is nationalised.

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.

Countrywide Financial, one of the US's largest mortgage lenders heavily affected by the sub-prime lending debacle, has been purchased by Bank of America in a $4bn all-share deal.

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

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.

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

BMS, the independent London market broker, has confirmed the resignation of its CEO, John Spencer.

Bermudian reinsurer White Mountains Re has cancelled its quota share arrangement with Helicon Re and Olympus Re for the 2008 year as a result of the softening property cat market.

The airline market is "likely to have made a loss" last year with claims outweighing premiums, according to the latest data from Aon Aviation.

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 executives have been warned about the impact US plea bargains could have on indemnity and directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance.

Lloyd's (re)insurer RJ Kiln & Co has strengthened its international network of marine and cargo business with the acquisition of The International Marine (Underwriting Agency) Limited (IMUA).

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

Stockbroker Equity Development are upbeat about Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings (R&Q)'s prospects following its recent initial public offering and approval to establish a Bermudian reinsurer, R&Q Re (Bermuda) Ltd.

Despite falls in UK insurance stocks over the last six months, valuations broadly remain ahead of their US and Bermudian property casualty counterparts, according to research by Numis Securities.

Recently merged New York law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP has opened an office in Dubai, with a primary focus on corporate finance.

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.

Capita Group plc has won the £200mn contract to run Marsh UK's back office in a deal which will see 650 of the broker's staff move to the outsourcing firm.

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