June 2007/4

Swiss (re)insurer, Zurich Financial Services Group announced today that with immediate effect, Mike Kerner will become global chief underwriting officer for general insurance.

Giant US insurer American International Group (AIG) filed a $1bn lawsuit against its former CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and ex-CFO Howard Smith last week.

The US Congress is due to discuss an extension to the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

UK run-off management company Tawa announced a round of redundancies within its 90 staff in London last week, fuelling sentiment that the discontinued business sector is heading towards greater consolidation and streamlining of its resources.

The reserving practices of Independent Insurance came under scrutiny as several of the company’s former claims staff testified in court last week.

Lloyd’s set the terms for the public issue of £500mn of tier 1 subordinated debt last week. Following a three-day investment road show, the Corporation saw its debt issue several times oversubscribed by institutional investors.

Swiss reinsurer Glacier Re joined the list of carriers accessing the capital markets with a $75mn offering under a shelf programme providing it with retrocession cover from windstorm and earthquakes.

Nephila Capital the Bermuda-based investment manager specialising in catastrophe reinsurance and weather risk, has announced the launch of Gamut Re, a reinsurance vehicle funded using collateralised debt obligations (CDOs).

Brit Insurance chief executive Dane Douetil joined a select club at the weekend – he became one of a limited number of insurance figures ever to be honoured following the publication of the Queen’s birthday honours list.

“Class of 2005” insurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd is likely to be the first of a number of insurers structuring contingent capital deals after it co-operated with investment bank JP Morgan to launch a financing deal last week that would allow it to tap the

US insurer State Farm is set to place a giant $4bn cat programme, consisting of both bonds and loans, to provide retrocessional protection for one of its subsidiaries. The company has formed a special purpose vehicle, called Merna Re, which will provide

Aspen Re, a subsidiary of UK (re)insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd, has announced plans to open a major office in Zurich, to act as the hub for Aspen’s European reinsurance activity.