January 2009/3

Markel Corporation's London-based subsidiary Markel International has appointed Louisa Lu as senior casualty underwriter in its Singapore product liability office.

UK-based international (re)insurance group Brit Insurance Holdings PLC has set up a US service operation, Brit Insurance Services (USA) Inc in conjunction with the UK arm of broker A J Gallagher.

London-based (re)insurance corporate finance boutique Atlas Partners has recruited Jonathan Walker as managing director and Ian Nelson as a senior advisor to its UK and international insurance M&A team.

The steady flow of senior executives leaving troubled insurance giant American International Group (AIG) continued with the departure of David Jordan from AIG subsidiary Lexington Insurance Company.

Fairfax Financial Group - one of the rare winners from 2008's financial rout - is close to completing its acquisition of Canada's largest commercial property and casualty insurance group after building an 87.8 percent stake.

Indian-based software exporter and outsourcing giant Satyam Computer Services Ltd - which was earlier this month hit by its founder and former chairman B Ramalinga Raju's confession to a $1bn fraud - had a $75mn limit in director's and officer's (D&O) lia

As evidence mounts that the potential EUR66.5bn German P&C legacy market may finally explode into activity, the European run-off industry prepares to convene on Cologne for its annual run-off Rendez-Vous.

Swiss banking giant USB has been ordered to pay French financial management company Oddo & Cie EUR30mn ($39.4mn) to reimburse its Madoff-related losses through Access International's LuxAlpha Sicav fund, which is supervised by UBS's Luxembourg unit.

Aon Benfield predicted last week that insured losses arising from the alleged $50bn Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme could reach as high as $3.8bn.

Nomura's comments (see article 1: (Re)insurance stocks hit as banks bailed out again) came as the UK government unveiled a further bailout of the banking sector, at the centre of which is an insurance scheme that would effectively see the taxpayer underwr

Convergence stalwart Hannover Re has successfully completed a EUR100mn embedded value life transaction, proving that the foundering life securitisation market still has a pulse.

London-based broker RFIB Holdings Ltd reported revenue and profit growth for the 12 months to 30 June 2008 and said it expects the pattern to continue as the impact of new teams boosts performance and the stronger dollar begins to filter through.