January 2012/1

Amlin announced late last month that it had jettisoned its up-for-sale corporate broker RBS Hoare Govett in favour of Morgan Stanley and Numis Securities as it looks to bounce back from a disappointing 2011.

Premium income earned by the UK insurance sector dropped for the third consecutive year in 2010. However, the London market has bucked this trend with increased premium sales, according to a report late last month from financial services advocacy group TheCityUK.

European insurers wrote total gross premiums of EUR1,104bn in 2010, a 2.5 percent increase on the previous year, according to figures from European (re)insurance federation the CEA.

Premiums in emerging markets have expanded by an average of 11 percent per annum over the past decade, according to a Swiss Re Sigma study released late last month.

Florida must substantially reduce pressure on its state-supported insurance and reinsurance operations and strengthen the private market, according to a new report.

US P&C insurers posted significant underwriting losses in the first nine months of 2011 with reinsurers taking the brunt of losses, according to new figures.

Reinsurance and retrocessional losses from the Thailand flooding could reach $9bn-$12bn and match losses from the devastating March 2011 earthquake in Japan on a gross basis, according to Espirito Santo analyst Joy Ferneyhough.

Hurricane Irene cost the US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) less than $750mn, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).

US (re)insurers spend too much time focussing on hurricanes and not enough on tornadoes.

Norway's Meteorological Institute has described Windstorm Dagmar, which ripped across Norway, Sweden and central Finland on Christmas Day, as possibly the third worst windstorm to strike the country in the past 50 years.

Japanese mutual Zenkyoren has increased its loss notification from the Tohoku earthquake for a second time to 890bn yen ($11.4bn), taking the world's biggest reinsurance programme within touching distance of a total loss, The Insurance Insider revealed last month.

Transatlantic's shareholders will vote on the previously announced merger with Alleghany Corporation at a special meeting on 6 February.