June 2012/4

Industry loss warranty (ILW) prices for peak US wind covers dropped about 10 percent in June with very little trading in the contracts after a smooth renewal on the traditional market, sister publication Trading Risk reported last week.

Specialty carriers that look to aggressively grow premium in a softening market tend to suffer a deterioration in underwriting performance, an analyst has said.

Underlying growth at Lloyd's and London-listed carriers was muted in Q1 by the impact of ceded premium and third party capacity, according to Espirito Santo analyst Joy Ferneyhough.

A moderate firming in the US P&C market combined with a gradual economic recovery is expected to boost brokerage revenue over the next year, according to rating agency Moody's.

US insurer Assurant Inc has bulked up limits on its property cat reinsurance programme by more than 15 percent to keep in line with its growing catastrophe exposures.

Chartis is set to expand its high limit cover plan for commercial property across the globe after subsidiary firm Lexington pioneered the product in North America.

Demand for cyber risk cover in Europe is set to soar in the next two years, spurred on by EU data privacy regulation expected to be issued in 2014, according to a specialist cyber risk broker.

UK risk managers' trade body Airmic has announced that it will be working with the "big three" brokers to create a compliance database of international regulations for global insurers.

A Dallas hailstorm that struck on 13 June could cost insurers around $2bn, making it one of the most expensive storms to strike the US so far this year.

Bermudian (re)insurer Validus Holdings has announced that it will buy back shares worth some $204.3mn after completing a previously announced modified Dutch auction process.

The £300mn bill the Lloyd's market has incurred in preparing for Solvency II should have been far lower and the process for implementing the regime has been "extraordinarily painful", Lloyd's chairman John Nelson told delegates at the London conference of the Association of Lloyd's Members last week.

Lloyd's chairman John Nelson has issued a challenge to Members' agents to come up with plans to help "invigorate" and streamline the use of Names capital at Lloyd's.