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.

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

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.