July 2003/3

In the wake of GoshawK’s 3 July mea culpa profits warning, the rating agency AM Best have downgraded the Lloyd’s insurer’s Syndicate 102 from A (excellent) to A- (excellent).

Bermudian (re)insurer Montpelier Re filed last Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell $200mn in senior notes.

The drive for meaningful asbestos reform in the US took a big step forward last Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee marginally voted in favour of Senator Orrin Hatch’s Fairness in Asbestos Resolution Act.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has echoed rating agency rival Moody’s concerns over the capital adequacy of Royal &Sun Alliance’s (R&SA) US operations.

Lloyd’s (re)insurer Chaucer has written to Names increasing the offer for unaligned 2004 capacity on its proposed merged Syndicate 1084 from 7.5p to 11p per £1.

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital has announced today the completion of a $500mn capital markets transaction.

Giant German Munich Re has become the first international reinsurer to receive a nationwide composite operating license in China as penetration into the tightly controlled domestic market gathers pace.

Troubled UK liability insurer The Underwriter has announced that it has gone into “solvent run-off” and, as of last Friday (11 July), will no longer write new business. The decision comes as a result of an FSA review into the company’s parlous capital sit