January 2011/4

London-listed (re)insurer Amlin has acquired UK household and commercial insurer JR Clare Underwriting Agencies (JCUA) for an undisclosed sum.

Lloyd's chairman Lord Levene has said that managing agents look set to spend some £300mn on Solvency II implementation, trumping the £250mn figure floated by his finance director Luke Savage earlier in the month.  

UK offshore domicile Guernsey has said that it currently has no intention of seeking Solvency II equivalence.  

Suncorp has notified reinsurers that it expects to receive gross claims of A$650mn (US$650mn) from the devastating flooding in Toowoomba and Brisbane earlier this month, based on an industry insured loss of A$2bn, The Insurance Insider has learned.

Bermuda-headquartered Lloyd's (re)insurer Hiscox has broken its silence on September's New Zealand earthquake by telling the market that it expects to incur claims of approximately £37mn ($58mn).

Willis Re A&H chief leaves for Axis; Lloyd's enters iPad age; Gallic giant PAI to offload broker CEP; AIG continues to redeem bailout; Cologne calling; Flagstone bags Housley; Willis appoints new Middle East head; JLT opens South African office; FSA freezes staff pay

Former American International Group (AIG) chief Hank Greenberg is set to go on trial on 2 May in a New York state lawsuit alleging he used bogus transactions to disguise the insurer's financial state.

A New York state appeals court has reinstated an antitrust lawsuit brought by Global Reinsurance Corp against Equitas.

Lloyd's general counsel Sean McGovern has praised the success of the Society's Solvency II lobbying efforts so far but warned that much work was still required.

The public authority that runs the Washington DC metro has sued Aon for negligence following a dispute following a train crash in June 2009 that killed nine people and seriously injured a number of others.

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Ryan Specialty Group has continued to build out its operations with the launch of a managing general underwriter for complex construction and property risks, Technical Risk Underwriters (TRU).

Guy Carpenter has hired a trio of new executives to form the core of a dedicated facultative team that will serve Spain and Portugal.

Independent London market broker BMS is poised to launch a new financial lines division later this year, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

US insurer Tower Group has built out its book of business with the acquisition of renewal rights on a portfolio underwritten by Navigators Group.

Navigators Group will take a 2010 fourth quarter charge of approximately $9.2mn after tax, the New York-headquartered firm revealed last week.

Financial magazine Barron's has focused attention on giant conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway by speculating that the company might break its 45-year run of withholding dividends.

London-listed (re)insurer Catlin Group has continued to build-out its US platform with the acquisition of a Wisconsin-domiciled admitted lines shell company from QBE for an undisclosed sum.

Lloyd's is concerned that the market will struggle to maintain profitability in 2011 as it wrestles the twin challenge of falling rates and diminishing investment yields, according to CEO Richard Ward.

Bermudian reinsurer Everest Re has parted company with Tom Jackson, the general manager and chief underwriting officer (CUO) of its London branch office, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Marine and aviation (re)insurers are unlikely to face significant disruption from the European Union's sanctions against the Iranian regime, according to a Lloyd's market circular.

RSA shares shrugged off a profits warning last week despite the group admitting that its 2010 combined ratio targets will no longer be met.

UK retail broker Heath Lambert has caught the market's attention with an unusual nine-year insurance placement deal for the £15.9bn London infrastructure project Crossrail.

Aviation premium written in Lloyd's looks set to decline in 2011 as the aerospace market responds to a series of loss-making years, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

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.

Aon's attempts to impose a new 3.5 percent commission on London market placements are facing a wall of resistance from insurers, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Germany's third largest insurer has fought off competition from rivals such as Markel to win the auction for the Dutch insurance group BV Bloemers.

Despite widespread predictions that 2011 could be the year that finally sees a flurry of M&A on Lime Street, KBW analyst Chris Hitchings is taking a contrarian view.

As international insurers and their reinsurers seek clarification on the quantity and quantum of mining claims, the issue of business interruption that contributed the lion's share of insured losses after flooding at the start of 2008 is once again at the forefront of underwriters' minds.

Among the many unknowns in evaluating the ultimate burden to the (re)insurance industry of the Queensland flooding of recent weeks is the impact on the mining sector and those that insure it.

With state premier Anna Bligh announcing an independent Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland flood disaster last week, attention is focusing on the role of the private insurance sector in the state.

Bermudian headquartered reinsurance group Endurance Specialty Holdings has bought out founding activist shareholder Perry Corp in a $321.5mn transaction.

Our Aon Carrier Charge story (see page 9) shows that the juggernaut issue of enhanced broker commissions continues to rumble, ruffling feathers and provoking sideways glances wherever it goes.

Munich Re has the highest reinsurance market share in Australia and has significantly expanded its book of business over the last two years.