July 2007/1

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said the cost of the recent UK floods is expected to reach £1bn, double the £500mn estimated by modeller Risk Management Services (RMS) last week.

Dutch financial services company ING Group announced last week that it has reached an agreement with P&V Verzekeringen to sell its Belgian Broker and Employee Benefits insurance business for EUR750mn.

Lloyd's has taken another stride towards an automated market by providing underwriters and brokers the opportunity to use technology to provide support for checking insurance slips.

SCOR took a further step toward closing its deal for Converium last week after being given the nod by Switzerland's Federal Office of Private Insurance (FOPI) to buy more than 50 percent of the reinsurer's share capital and voting rights.

Private equity investors The Blackstone Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners will sell their stakes in Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd in an underwritten public offering.

Amlin plc remains an attractive investment, despite its shares underperforming the UK non-life sector by 9 percent in the first half of the year, according to Shore Capital's Eamonn Flanagan.

Net income after taxes for the US property and casualty insurance industry fell by 5.5 percent to $15.8bn in the first quarter 2007, compared to the same period in 2006...

Illium Managing Agency Ltd has parted company with active underwriter Denis Burniston, who founded the Lloyd’s liability specialist in 2003 with current chief executive Russell Benzies.

Karel Van Hulle, head of insurance and pensions unit at the European Commission and responsible for the preparation of the Solvency II directive, has said the deadline for implementation of the directive will be pushed back by two years to 2012.

Jacques Aigrain, CEO of reinsurance giant Swiss Re described insurance linked securitisations (ILS) as a “major revolution in how we perform in the market”...