July 2014/1

Integro's board and investors are fully behind the strategy to continue building an independent, privately owned broker as it delivers strong top-line growth and improving margins, according to new chairman John Clements

Reinsurance capital grew by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to reach a new record high of $555bn, according to reinsurance broker Aon Benfield

Tasty summer hailstorm loss served up by France, Belgium and Germany

Munich Re, Allianz, AIG and Ace are among the downstream energy carriers set to take significant hits after a major fire at Russian oil company Rosneft's Achinsk refinery, sister title Inside FAC revealed

After a brutal period in which casualty treaty ceding commissions have swollen dramatically, the mid-year renewals have shown some signs that the rate of softening is easing off, according to Willis Re head of global casualty lines Andrew Newman

After 18 months of wounding catastrophe rate reductions, whose impact has thus far been masked by the absence of major losses, reinsurers are wondering when it will all end

Travelers tops up cheaply while Ace is aggressive...

Australian mega-cedant Suncorp has again demonstrated its ruthless approach to reinsurance purchasing by slashing the panel of reinsurers on its A$5bn cat treaty

Reinsurers taking on UK cat risk at 1 July did so at pricing that was 30 percent down on 2012/13 levels after swingeing reductions

Floridian start-up uses savings to buy more

Weekly share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

No surprises from the perma-soft diversifier

Catlin, the lead reinsurer of the International Group of protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs, has exhausted its own retrocession protection after the latest deterioration in the cost of removing the Costa Concordia wreck

Lloyd's stocks ventured down the path to recovery in early July, after our composite achieved an average gain of 4.23 percent following weeks of decline.

Softening spreads; Endurance expands; Arch reshuffles; Rate moderation; Swiss combine; Amlin builds; Arthur avoids...

AIG subsidiary Lexington Insurance Group has become embroiled in another multi-million dollar litigation dispute over a Sandy loss, this time in relation to a wind-versus-flood dispute for damage to a racecourse.

Cargo insurers will be allowed to join Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) in a Japanese lawsuit against shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for damages from last year's sinking of the MOL Comfort container ship, according to legal reports

The sale of UK-based legacy business Compre is likely to consist of a replacement of one private equity backer with a fresh one, market sources have told The Insurance Insider.

The industry should take "baby steps" towards implementing electronic placing to ensure its success, according to industry experts speaking at the Xchanging London 100 working group roundtable earlier this month

Global insurance group Ace earlier this month confirmed a deal to buy the large corporate P&C business of Itaú Seguros from its Brazilian banking parent Itaú Unibanco for approximately 1.515bn reais ($685mn)

Reforms to UK insurance commercial contract law have gathered momentum after the consultation period for the final draft of the Insurance Contracts bill ended earlier this month (2 July)

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has increased its budget estimate for 2014/15, according to a July policy statement on regulated fees and levies released by the regulator

Nine insurers deemed systemically important financial institutions (Sifis) are preparing for the announcement of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors' (IAIS) basic capital requirements (BCR), due this October

A subtle shift away from macro positioning is expected

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market needs to look into the "depths of the reinsurance market" for further growth as it may be nearing the limits of its expansion in natural catastrophe business, according to Credit Suisse Asset Management's head of ILS Niklaus Hilti.

Even the longest cheating phases eventually break

The retrocession market has sourced $1bn of new capacity in the past year, with most of the growth coming from traditional reinsurance carriers, Aon Benfield Global Re Specialty chairman Piers Cantlay said at a Guernsey ILS Insight event hosted in Zurich last week.

Lloyd's (re)insurer Amlin is set to lift its stake in insurance-linked securities fund manager Leadenhall Capital Partners from 40 percent to 75 percent, six years after it helped launch the firm.

The Insurance Insider's ownership survey highlights the continuing dominance of a few leading fund managers... and Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway has given credence to insurers' fears that it will begin writing energy business direct by taking a 40 percent share of top-10 energy account PDvsa on a three-year basis

Cedants and brokers gave catastrophe reinsurers another shellacking at 1 July, with premiums sharply down and smaller reinsurers left out in the cold as market stratification intensified.

The stellar gains of 2013 are a distant memory as The Insurance Insider index remained broadly flat in H1