July 2010/3

ABI loses director general after 6 months...

Bermuda and Switzerland - favoured domiciles for many international (re)insurers - are first on European regulators' list for granting Solvency II equivalence to non-EU countries.

US crop insurers have agreed a deal with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will see federal subsidies cut by $6bn over the next decade.

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550mn to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle fraud charges that it defrauded investors over the sale of subprime mortgage products that cost its customers more than $1bn.

American International Group (AIG) has agreed to pay $725mn to settle a class action suit brought by state pension funds that alleged the group engaged in accounting frauds and misled its investors between 1999 and 2004.

Congressional committee hearings held in Washington last week gave a fresh airing of the debate around the Neal Bill (HR 3424) proposals to curtail tax relief on affiliated reinsurance transactions between US insurers and foreign-domiciled reinsurers.

The US House of Representatives has voted through a bill that would raise the limits of cover provided by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), as well as extending its warrant until 2015.

Non-US (re)insurers that operate in the US market will have their collateral requirements reduced, after a financial reform bill passed the Senate.

Investment giant Berkshire Hathaway provided a further display of its muscular balance sheet last week (15 July) with a mammoth reinsurance contract that provides CNA with up to $4bn of retroactive long-tail asbestos/environmental cover.

Argo Group revealed $20-$25mn of Q2 net cat losses last week.

U2's recently cancelled North American tour is likely to cost the London market close to $17mn due to contingency cover purchased by the band and its promoters, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

NYMagic's move to go private in a $230mn buyout by ProSight Specialty Insurance Holdings Inc has been challenged by class action lawyers over suggestions the US property casualty insurer may have undersold itself.

Specialty insurer Markel Corporation acquired privately owned US workers' compensation insurer Aspen for $135mn in cash, it was announced last week.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm Eqecat is releasing the first Asian typhoon model to cover the full western Pacific basin and a US quake model that incorporates earthquake data from the 2008 US Geological Survey.

Independent London broker Miller is to beef up its reinsurance capabilities by hiring two senior executives from Guy Carpenter and a derivatives specialist from Evolution Markets.

The industry loss warranty (ILW) sector was a pocket of hard market conditions in the second quarter, bucking the general soft market trend of falling premium prices and an over-supply of insurance cover.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is looking to break out from under the wing of risk warehouser Swiss Re and sponsor its first cat bond in 2011, The Insurance Insider's sister publication Trading Risk has revealed.

Boardroom changes have continued at American International Group (AIG), with the US insurer appointing former Prudential plc CEO Mark Tucker as head of its Asian unit AIA.

Ironshore and QBE have shot up the rankings of excess and surplus lines (E&S) carriers in the US, with Berkshire Hathaway and Allianz falling sharply as they curb premium.

Expansive London-based agency Dual Corporate Risks (DCR) has signed up Newline Syndicate 1218 to provide £10mn of excess capacity for directors' and officers' (D&O) business, while simultaneously raiding Axis Capital to bolster its team.

Senior London market claims handlers have called for a far clearer understanding of what is spent on professional services such as loss adjusting and legal expenses...

Xchanging has unveiled a deal with the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA) and the Lloyd's Market Association (LMA) to build an enhanced electronic accounting capability into the market's existing infrastructure.

US insurance giant Chubb set up its own Lloyd's managing agency this year because of the lack of so-called "turnkey" capacity available at Lloyd's, according to its senior underwriter Rob Cage.

Moody's has downgraded its continuity opinion of Kiln's catastrophe Syndicate 557 to reflect the depressed rate of return that Lloyd's Names can expect due to its high capital requirements.

Willis has maintained its public crusade against contingent commissions today (19 July) by distributing a white paper on the subject to risk managers, following up on the high-profile "Clients Before Contingents" campaign launched at the Rims conference in April.

AJ Gallagher said last week it had entered into a new $500mn unsecured credit facility to replace one expiring later this year.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has hired Walsham Brothers veteran Martin Pepper to replace Jack Stephenson as head of its London-based marine and energy practice.

Mark Parker, the head of one of Willis’s international P&C London market operations, has left the broker, The Insurance Insider has learnt.

The UK-registered holding company created as part of the merger between Cooper Gay and Swett & Crawford has no representatives from the latter's executive management team, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Two years after Willis acquired rival broker Hilb Rogal Hobbs (HRH), senior former HRH executives have emerged at the head of a new US broker consolidator The Hilb Group.

R-T Specialty, the wholesale arm of Pat Ryan's broking start-up, has made its first acquisition, picking up California-based wholesaler Chartwell Independent Insurance Brokers.

It's a headhunters' market out there.

Lloyd's insurer Chaucer is opening a new office in Buenos Aires to write facultative property business, as it looks to exploit hardening rates in the wake of the Chile earthquake.

Lord Levene is adamant that he can continue to fulfil his responsibilities as Lloyd's chairman despite his new role as executive chairman of an unnamed start-up looking to muscle its way into the UK consumer banking sector.

HCC Global has appointed joint CEOs to head up the firm's international operations, replacing Matthew Fairfield.

The Brazilian economic boom has not translated into a growth in reinsurance demand despite the lifting of the state monopoly two years ago, according to a veteran Brazilian insurance consultant. 

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) is the broker for a share of the reinsurance cover for one of the local carriers insuring a Nigerian national oil company currently at the centre of overcharging allegations, it has emerged.

Secondary market cat bond pricing increased by a modest 0.2 percent last week, showing weak signs of recovery after a mammoth eight-week slide where valuations fell by more than 2 percent.

Independent London market (re)insurance broker BMS is in discussions with Lloyd's to launch a syndicate, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

In a move that could have profound consequences for some independent London wholesalers, as of this week Aon has ordered its global workforce to use its own resources to access wholesale markets, such as London, rather than sub-contract to rival brokers.