July 2008/3

Rating agency Fitch Ratings has cut the outlook for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) from stable to negative having highlighted a number of challenges for the embattled insurance group.

The scheme of arrangement on the four EW Payne Pools has been approved in the UK High Court.

Chinese insurance premiums were up 51 percent year-on year during the first six months of 2008, according to the country's financial regulator.

Aon Ltd has recruited ZFS executive Mark Chessher to become its chief financial officer later this year.

Everest Re is to set up a representative office in Brazil after it received approval to operate in the newly-deregulated reinsurance sector in May, according to reports.

The European Commission has cleared Berkshire Hathaway and Munich Re to complete their buyout of SCOR's stake in Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers (GAUM).

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company said there were no surprises as the market continued to soften at the 1/7 renewals.

Xchanging is poised to agree a major outsourcing deal with the expansive (re)insurance broker Cooper Gay & Co Ltd to take on the firm's back office functions, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

As the global credit crisis continues to widen and deepen, separating companies whose share performance signals underlying concerns over the sub-prime fallout from those dragged down by the general stockmarket malaise is becoming increasingly difficult.

A landmark run-off transaction expected to come to market next month is understood to involve a subsidiary of Wurttembergische und Badische Versicherungs-AG (Wuba), The Insurance Insider can reveal.