March 2006/3

The Insurance Insider’s 2006 market survey, in association with Salmon Ltd, will gauge the views of senior industry figures on the competitiveness of the London market at a time of extraordinary flux for the industry. It takes less than five minutes...

But share price suffers as plans for new holding company, FSA insurer and rights issue revealed... Lloyd’s insurer SVB Holdings plc has confirmed a scheme of arrangement to ring-fence past liabilities, with the creation of a new holding company...

Giant reinsurer Swiss Re reported a 41 percent drop in its 2005 net income to SFr1.451bn from SFr2.475bn in the prior-year, a result that reflected a tough year for reinsurers. Swiss Re absorbed SFr3bn in large natural catastrophe claims following...

CNA falls to Q4 loss Chicago-based insurer CNA Financial posted a fourth quarter net loss of $217mn, or 92 cents per share, down from a net profit of $303mn, or $1.11 per share, in 2004. The company was hit by $223mn in commuted reinsurance...

UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) reported a £685mn leap in its full-year after tax performance. After tax profits were £605mn last year, a marked improvement on 2004’s £80mn loss. Profits before tax rose to £865mn in 2005 from £80mn the...

As Amlin, Beazley, Catlin and Hiscox kicked off the Lloyd’s listed vehicles’ 2005 reporting season, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd (KBW) noted good prospects for the sector based on recent trading statements, despite the record hurricane...

The fate of the campaign by non-US reinsurers to have onerous collateral requirements relaxed for business written in the US should be known by the end of 2006, after the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) finally set itself a...

Despite the demise of Kinnect, London’s back-office provider Xchanging is continuing to develop initiatives to help the market’s insurers reach the contract certainty targets agreed with the Financial Services Authority.

London on target with contract certainty initiative ; G6 becomes magnificent seven ; HCC grows Lloyd’s presence with Heritage stake ; Managing the cycle key to Lloyd’s underwriters ; FSA cancels broker’s permission to trade ; et al...

Attendees at the ARC Congress were given a stark warning over asbestos liabilities by lawyer David Gross of US firm Saiber Schlesinger Satz & Goldstein. Giving a presentation entitled “Toujour Asbestos: Will we ever be free of it?” Gross gave the...

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said it regards a healthy run-off sector as an essential part of the insurance market. Speaking at the Association of Run-Off Companies (ARC) Congress on 7 March, Julian Adams, head of...

The Insurance Insider reports from the World Insurance Forum where the growing interaction between the reinsurance industry and the capital markets was a key subject of debate. Industry leaders gathered at the World Insurance Forum in Bermuda last...

The brokers working to achieve peer-to-peer initiatives with the “gang of six” Lloyd’s underwriters have been revealed as Aon, Benfield, Willis and Marsh. The “gang of six”, or G6, is the breakaway group of powerful insurers which has combined...

In stark contrast with JLT, reinsurance broker Benfield Group impressed analysts early March with a positive outlook on conditions although, as expected, its cost base impacted margins. Group revenue rose 6.8 percent from £303.5mn in 2004 to...

Swiss giant Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) reported a strident set of 2005 figures on 16 February, delivering record operating profit of $3.95bn – a 32 percent rise on 2004.

Aspen impresses analysts, despite loss Despite posting a fourth quarter net profit of $30.3mn or 31 cents a share, Aspen Insurance Holdings was unable to turn around a hurricane-struck year, joining a growing band of Bermudians to book a 2005 deficit.

London-based HSBC Insurance Brokers announced a restructuring on 2 March, with the creation of four core divisions reporting to chief executive Mike Dixon. The new structure sees Direct Client Solutions, International Solutions, Intermediary...

Aigrain slams Bermuda start-up ; ARIG report record profit ; Hannover completes €100mn securitisation ; Trident II to sell Axis shares ; RFIB opens Dubai office ; Ariel recruits execs from rivals ; Lancashire reshuffles ; et al...

The last month has seen several developments in the protracted and increasingly acrimonious divorce proceedings between American International Group (AIG) and the company's former chief executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.

Hurricane-decimated Bermudian in talks to transfer ongoing business after downgrades. Embattled Bermudian reinsurer PXRE Group Ltd is pinning its hopes on Lloyd’s as part of a rescue plan that could see the group transfer its ongoing business to...

Axiom Consulting is the latest UK financial services firm planning to cut costs by outsourcing its functions to an offshore firm, The Insurance Insider can reveal. The (re)insurance run-off consultancy – which spun-off from former owner Aon Ltd in...

Months after Lloyd’s insurer Wellington Underwriting plc stunned shareholders with two loss updates in the space of ten days came the announcement that its chief underwriting officer David Foreman was to retire.

As first revealed by The Insurance Insider on 6 February, Lloyd’s has chosen the former head of the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) Dr Richard Ward as its next chief executive following the departure of Nick Prettejohn at the end of last year.

When, without prompting, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc’s (JLT) new chief executive Dominic Burke volunteered: “I passionately believe in the independence of JLT”, it begged the question: “Who was suggesting otherwise?”