July 2005/4

Hiscox plc has become the latest Lloyd's insurer to expand its presence in the US with a 19 July announcement that it has made three key appointments to its proposed New York office, due to open up early 2006.

Omega Underwriting Holdings plc has until the 1 August to table a fresh offer for its fellow Lloyd's insurer Hardy Underwriting Group plc or withdraw its interest, according to a ruling from the London Stock Exchange Panel Executive.

After a flurry of excitement in the Lloyd's listed sector, advocates of consolidation among the market's players were dealt a blow this month, with the news that Amlin has walked away from its proposed bid for fellow Lloyd's vehicle Chaucer.

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

The Lloyd's Franchise Board has been granted more time to consider raising the Central Fund levies next year in a move which may prove unpopular with the insurers who trade in the market.

As broking margins face growing pressures, Aon Ltd may set a precedent by being the first London market broker to hive off its embedded legacy costs to a third party in a bid to save money, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

ACE's Bermudian contemporary XL continues to suffer its own legacy issues, unveiling a further boost to its US reinsurance reserves this month, which included a $64.7mn pre-tax increase for its workers' compensation reserves.

Lloyd's is planning to scale back the implementation of its Accounting and Settlement (A&S) project for the market as it looks to focus resources on the task of achieving contract certainty by the deadline of the end of next year imposed by...

Leading Lloyd's IT provider Room Solutions has blamed slow take up of a major new investment project for contributing to a £1mn loss for the year.

Abacus Syndicates is bucking the trend among Lloyd's insurers, by applying to expand both its Syndicates' capacity next year.

Hurricane season earlybirds hit US and Mexico Barely a month into the hurricane season and two major storms have already made landfall in the south east United States and Mexico.

Integro Ltd, the Bob Clements' inspired broking start-up, has continued to find Marsh Inc fertile territory to harvest new recruits.