July 2006/2

S&P reassesses syndicate ratings; UK start-up begins trading; FSA consults on special purpose vehicles; RFIB recruits energy team; Insurers dealt UK asbestos blow; Omega upbeat; Ward targets change with reshuffle; et al.

Creechurch Underwriting Ltd - the Lloyd's insurer which parted company with its chief executive last month - has been put up for sale, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has described the old and "much-maligned Lloyd's accounting and reporting regime" as superior to the GAAP system imposed last year.

Total capacity at Lloyd's may rise next year after the first round of syndicates made their 2007 business forecasts.

Over 1,000 Lloyd's Names have launched a £1bn class-action style legal case against the UK government, led by the militant Names campaigner Christopher Stockwell.

Aon's announcement that it will have the ability to trade electronically across all its London market lines of business by the end of the year marks a "huge cultural shift", according to the driving force behind process reform at the broker.

Insurance service provider Whittington surprised the market last month by agreeing the sale of its newly established Lloyd's managing agency and specialist Asian syndicate, Alba, to Insurance Australia Group (IAG).

White Mountains raises storms bill by $200mn; Imagine heads for court date with former CEO; River Re licensed in Barbados; Glacier Re mounts defence of under review rating; NAIC vote moves to end US collateral requirements; et al.

The protracted fallout caused by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's March 2005 departure from giant US insurer American International Group (AIG) continues both in and out of the US courts.

Bavarian-based (re)insurance giant Munich Re moved a step closer to restoring its once cherished double A rating on 27 June, with the news that Standard & Poor's (S&P) had revised its outlook on the company's A+ rating from stable to positive.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) says that more (re)insurers are likely to become insolvent as Solvency II puts the industry through a "revolution".

French (re)insurer SCOR has agreed to buy German life reinsurer Revios in a $775mn transaction.