January 2011/4

Near-term hurricane models used by AIR Worldwide (AIR), EQECAT and Risk Management Solutions (RMS) to project insured losses from the Atlantic hurricanes are inaccurate, according to cat modelling consultancy Karen Clark & Co.

Airline insurers fell to a loss in 2010 as claims again broke through the $2bn barrier.

Non-life earnings for the biggest of the European (re)insurers will grow by 8 percent in 2011, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P).

Sovereign non-payment remains a continuing threat to international business in 2011, according to political risk research carried out by global broker Aon.

The global executive liability (re)insurance community continues to see remarkably little impact from the sub-prime crisis and the major financial institution fraud-related losses such as Madoff and Stanford, an Insurance Insider survey has recently shown.

Securities lawsuit filings hit a new record in 2010, despite a significant drop-off in the number of new suits related to the credit crisis.

Lloyd's (re)insurers Hiscox, Beazley and Brit can expect a combined $110mn hit from the New Zealand earthquake, Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Christopher Hitchings has estimated.

Scor has become the latest (re)insurer to take advantage of the low cost of issuing debt in Switzerland with a SFR400 (EUR300mn) subordinated debt offer.

Although the reserve buffer among European reinsurers has withstood the soft market better than might have been feared, there is a risk that the most recent accident years are under-reserved and developing negatively, according to research from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW).

Platinum Underwriters Holdings has agreed to pay almost $50mn to rival RenaissanceRe to buy back share options that it awarded to it when it went public in 2002.

Lloyd's insurer Hiscox may have joined its peer Amlin as the Lloyd's insurer of choice for investors, according to Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW) analysis.

Lloyd's heavyweights Amlin and Hiscox could return around £220mn to shareholders in the opening months of 2011, according to Jefferies International analyst Nick Pope.