July 2005/4

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.

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.

In what was a relatively uneventful month, world's largest insurer AIG continued to play catch-up with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), delivering its first quarter 2005 results on 27 June.

German reinsurer Hannover Re has revealed plans to realign its under performing US subsidiary Clarendon away from program business to specialty insurance, potentially cutting gross premiums by $1bn and increasing group net retention to 80 percent...

Swiss reinsurer Converium has begun the search for a replacement to its chief executive Terry Clarke who stepped in earlier this year following the ousting of Dirk Lohmann in the wake of the company's much publicised difficulties.

World's largest reinsurer Munich Re has met with a mixed response from ratings agencies following its 19 July announcement that it has increased reserves at its US subsidiary American Re by $1.6bn, cutting group second quarter earnings by EUR0.4bn...

French reinsurer SCOR has successfully raised a total of EUR233.2mn from the issue of 149.5mn shares (after full exercise of over-allotment option), with the majority of the gross proceeds going to buy back the remaining shares of Irish subsidiary IRP.

Mutual insurer Equitable Life has dropped the lion's share of its case against its former auditor Ernst & Young (E&Y), reducing its claim for damages to £700mn against the original £2.05bn figure.

The Insurance Insider can reveal that rating agency AM Best has lost a second key figure from its London office in six months, with the resignation of the well-regarded Jose Sanchez-Crespo from his position as general manager of its European Ratings...

The revolt of Goshawk's shareholders came to an abrupt end this month when the company's largest shareholders, Phoenix Asset Managers, failed to gain backing for any of its proposals at the company's AGM.

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.