June 2011/3

Bermudian reinsurer Argo Re has secured $100mn of second event multi-peril cover with its first cat bond, Loma Re, sister title Trading Risk revealed.

The medieval city Norwich once again becomes the unlikely setting for the global run-off world as industry figures converge on East Anglia for the latest instalment of the R&Q Rendez-Vous.

Failed New Zealand insurer Western Pacific Insurance (WPI) will not have sufficient funds to meet its projected total claims, its liquidators Grant Thornton have warned.

The information presented to underwriters attaching to the placement of music promoter AEG's non-appearance cover for Michael Jackson's cancelled 2009 comeback concerts claims the artist had not seen any doctors other than a cosmetic specialist since June 2005, according to a court filing last week.

The proliferation of lawsuits after the Macondo/Deepwater Horizon oil explosion shows that such disasters can be way beyond what the insurance industry can deal with, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert partner Tim Taylor has warned.

Michel Barnier has hit back at criticisms of the Solvency II (SII) initiative from insurance groups, claiming the new regime was necessary to replace the current "outdated" approach that does not reflect the economic reality of how insurers' run their business.

(Re)insurers continue to face the threat of punitive regulation that could force them to carry more capital in the fall-out from the financial crisis, according to XL Group CEO Mike McGavick.

RSA's Brown warns of nasty surprise for SII second tier; Insurers are not like banks, G20 told

European (re)insurance federation the CEA and 11 other international trade bodies, including the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers and the Reinsurance Association of America, have written to the Insurance Superintendent of Argentina to express strong concerns over proposed regulations that place severe restrictions on cross-border reinsurance.

Insurers' ability to wriggle out of obligations by citing meaningful non-disclosure will be eroded if proposals unveiled by Airmic at its annual conference in Bournemouth last week become widespread.

Major insurance-linked investor Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has ratcheted up its industry loss warranty (ILW) capacity in the past six months, marking a swift turnaround in policy as cat bond sales dragged.

A handful of small to mid-sized European ILS fund managers have succeeded in riding the wave of interest in insurance-linked investments by raising over $250mn in recent weeks.

Collateralised reinsurer Aeolus Capital Management has raised more than $500mn to invest in the mid-year renewals as its private equity owners back out of the business, sister publication Trading Risk has reported.

Despite a reported increase in property cat pricing, a well-capitalised traditional reinsurance market has been sufficiently competitive to take market share from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector in the mid-year renewals season.

Mark McComiskey, managing director of private equity firm First Reserve, is surprised by the frenzy of interest in new sidecar initiatives following the roll-call of major cat losses over the past 16 months.

(Re)insurers are actively lining up a broad range of sidecar-style structures to deploy if a significant catastrophe accelerates the hardening of property cat rates later this year.

US insurers have reported more than $4.5bn in catastrophe losses for only the first two months of the second quarter.

Japanese non-life insurers have now paid out 944bn yen ($11.8bn) relating to homes damaged by the 11 March earthquake, the General Insurance Association of Japan said last week (10 June).

Small Lloyd's insurance broker Swinglehurst is anxiously awaiting the receipt of £3mn of overdue fees from a single client, as it seeks to settle a £920,000 tax dispute with the UK tax authorities (HMRC) that has driven it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Preference share issuances are gaining in popularity as (re)insurers raise new funds to take advantage of hardening property cat rates without diluting their existing shareholders.

International P&C insurer RSA has set out a vision for meeting the world's energy needs using renewable energy sources only as the sector continues to provide an attractive growth opportunity for insurers.

The brutal roll-call of energy losses in 2010-11 inevitably hammered Torus' loss ratios, but has not dented the group's long-term view of the opportunities in the energy and other specialty markets.

Risk managers in the energy industry are "not happy" with the way insurers have responded to the landscape post-Macondo and there is a danger that they will become disaffected, the chairman of Gallagher International has warned.

The cost of political violence cover is set to increase by 5 to 10 percent because of the unrest that has spread throughout the Middle East.