March 2005/2

Insider Publishing Ltd, the publisher of Insider Week and The Insurance Insider, has launched a new publication that focuses on the life insurance, investment and pension industries.

Specialist insurer Markel International has set its sights on continental Europe, announcing last week that it will open an office in Spain. Markel International España will be based in Madrid and will focus initially on Professional Indemnity and Dir

The sentencing of flamboyant insurance executive Michael Segal was postponed from 6 April to 29 June last week under a motion approved by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

US reinsurer Odyssey Re Holdings Corp has announced the retirement of its executive vice-president and chief financial officer Charles Troiano. In his stead comes Robert Giammarco, currently the managing director in the Financial Institutions Investment B

Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings has agreed to sell around half of its share in AXIS Capital, the Bermudian (re)insurer it helped found in the wake of 9/11.

FSA chief executive John Tiner may turn the regulatory spotlight on finite reinsurance in the UK, it emerged last week.

Robert Hiscox, the forthright chairman of Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox plc, has slammed the “petty rules” culture of the UK regulator Financial Services Authority (FSA) while unveiling a slight fall in trading profits at the eponymous insurer.

Listed Lloyd’s insurer Amlin rode a year dominated by record industry natural catastrophe losses to register year-on-year improvements in its earnings per share and combined ratio for 2004.

Mark Hewlett, the former Sedgwick broker and European insurance managing director of Moody’s, has left the rating agency, Insider Week can reveal.

But viaticals and bail bonds continue to pose questions... GoshawK has announced a post-tax $3mn loss for 2004 in its full year results – with claims of $40mn from Q3 hurricanes and other catastrophes blamed as the main reason for the losses.

Benfield Group Ltd posted flat trading profits and a slide in revenue last week while outlining a strategy to grow its primary operations in response to the turmoil facing the US insurance industry.

Hank Greenberg may be set to stun the insurance industry by stepping down from his post as chief executive of the world’s largest insurance company American International Group (AIG).