January 2009/3

Lloyd's messaging hub initiative will not lead to a substantial cost to market participants, according to the Corporation's director of market operations and North America Sue Langley.

The heaviest prospective loss in British financial history sent Royal Bank of Scotland shares spiraling down 70 percent today (19 January) and made the bank's up-for-sale insurance arm technically worth more than the entire market capitalisation of the...

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

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, the reinsurance arm of broking giant Aon Corp, confirmed last week it is to outsource its UK back office following the £935mn merger of the two firms last year.

Kuwaiti Islamic reinsurance company Al Fayer Retakaful Insurance's financial strength rating of A- has been put under review with negative implications by ratings agency AM Best.

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

Willis placed the cover on the US Airways Airbus A320 which crashed into the Hudson river, New York shortly after take-off on the 15 January.

With governments once again in bail-out mode as the banking sector both sides of the Atlantic lurched into its latest crisis, the (re)insurance sector - despite its relatively bright outlook - is again struggling to decouple itself from the fortunes of it

BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank are marketing a $200mn US wind and quake cat bond for French reinsurer SCOR, our sister title Trading Risk revealed on 15 January.

As the world awaits President-elect Obama's inaugural address tomorrow (20 January) the (re)insurance industry is looking on anxiously to see how the new President and his likely treasury secretary, current president of the Federal Reserve Bank...

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