July 2007/4

Creditors of Bryanston Insurance Company Limited are to receive a payment percentage of 59 percent after the scheme administrator, Paul Evans, raised the amount by another 12 percent.

Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward has warned the London market that the “pace of change” on business processes remains too slow and reiterated his willingness to mandate action if necessary.

For the second consecutive year, the number and total dollar value of US securities fraud class action lawsuits were well below historical averages.

The heads of the GCFac team that defected to rival Integro Ltd in April have won a UK Court of Appeal judgment preventing former employer Guy Carpenter from suing them in New York.

Broking giant Aon Corp has said it is in discussions with Chubb Corp over the possibility of accepting supplemental compensation from the US insurer.

QBE Insurance (Europe), subsidiary of Australian (re)insurer QBE Insurance Group Ltd has announced its intention to form QBE Switzerland with the acquisition of two Swiss motor insurance businesses.

Integro Ltd CEO Roger Egan has sued former employer Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc (MMC) alleging he was not properly compensated after being axed by the company in the aftermath of the 2004 bid-rigging affair.

US insurer Farmers Insurance Exchange has acquired the right to issue $500mn of regulatory capital if it suffers a severe US natural catastrophe loss in the next five years in a pioneering transaction first reported by The Insurance Insider last week.

Italian insurer Generali and Czech financial services company PPF Group NV have set up a central and eastern European joint venture with combined assets of EUR5.1bn that creates the region’s biggest insurer.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has reported that, while Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) programmes for the majority of European insurers are “adequate”, the outlook for ERM is “nevertheless positive”.

Insurance giant Allianz SE and its core operating companies have been upgraded from AA- to AA by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) as a result of “major and sustained” improvements in its operating performance.

UK niche-branded insurer Admiral Group plc’s already-depleted share price fell a further 3 percent on the news last week that it had ended discussions with potential private equity investors regarding its price aggregator subsidiary, Confused.com.