January 2009/2

Chubb Europe completes London move; Bermudian Starr gets A rating; Japanese trio in merger talks; US P&C sector slides to loss; CEA responds to QIS4 despite impasse; Swiss Re secures $1.5bn to ease capital concerns; Torus acts as Citadel scales back

Our monthly column keeping a check on recent US and EU legislative and regulatory developments, in association with Sidley Austin LLP...

2008, with Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, a spate of US tornadoes, and nearly $7bn in single risk losses, is now being regarded as the second-worst year for catastrophe losses on record.

The nascent catastrophe derivatives markets have now traded more than $440mn of notional volume since their inception in late 2007.

Expansive Lloyd's insurer Jubilee has officially launched its global property business under the leadership of former Travelers underwriter Martin Pope - a move predicted by The Insurance Insider last July.

The steady flow of senior executives out of American International Group (AIG) continued into the New Year as the heads of the beleaguered insurance giant’s environmental unit left to launch a new business at Bermudian Ironshore.

Reinsurance rate increases at 1/1 renewals were relatively modest, and confined largely to peak risk in the US, as a relatively small overall depreciation in industry capital, capacity and risk appetite helped to contain price rises.

Texas-based Southwest Insurance Partners Inc (SWIP) - the insurance investment vehicle led by HCC Insurance founder Stephen Way - has plans for a private offering to raise up to an additional $100mn in capital, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

At the time of going to press, London market insurers had received the first Madoff-related notifications on errors and omissions (E&O) and directors' and officers' (D&O) policies.

Insurance-linked investment fund Clariden Leu is launching a specialist industry loss warranty (ILW) fund for 2009, seeking to capitalise on a retro capacity crunch.

Three cat bonds are expected to be brought to market in late January/February raising hopes of dealflow through the insurance linked securities (ILS) pipeline that has been blocked since September last year.

As stock market indices around the globe recorded the worst calendar year declines in their histories, spreads widened to epic proportions and corporate bond values took a nosedive, major players in the US life (re)insurance market...