March 2006/5

Hampden Private Capital is set to become one of only two remaining Lloyd’s members’ agencies after agreeing to acquire the Names’ advisory business from CBS Private Capital.

Run-off services provider CMGL has announced the appointment of Jonathon Piper as its chief actuary. Piper joins CMGL from run-off management company KMS, where he has spent 12 years, most recently as senior actuary. He began his career at Victory...

Giant insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) has appointed James Speros as chief marketing officer and senior vice president. Speros will be responsible for MMC’s global marketing and communications strategies supporting MMC’s business...

HCC Insurance Holdings’ executive John Molbeck – who returned to the insurer last year after a stint with Jardine Lloyd Thompson’s US arm – will become the company’s new president and chief operating officer. The insurer’s founder Stephen Way will...

The fast-expanding London broker SBJ Group Ltd has acquired the employee benefits technology company Orbit Benefits Ltd from Benfield Group. SBJ – which is majority owned by the private equity firm Capital Z Financial Services Partners – said the...

Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe has promoted Ross Curtis to senior vice president of its catastrophe reinsurance unit. Curtis has been with the company since 1999, when he joined as a catastrophe reinsurance analyst, and is involved in the...

German reinsurer R+V returned to the Royal Courts of Justice last week as it attempts to establish the quantum of liabilities due from the controversial, Lloyd's based managing agency Risk. The case, on which The Insurance Insider has reported...

A group of hard-hit US reinsurers suffered over $7bn in collective underwriting losses during 2005 after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma (KRW) added 23.2 points to the sector’s combined ratio, according to the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA).

Insurance claims from Cyclone Larry, which struck north-eastern Australia on 20 March, reached AUS$90mn last week with 4,000 claims already made, according to the Insurance Disaster Response Organisation (IDRO).

UK insurance giant Aviva plc pulled its bid for compatriot Prudential plc on Friday (24 March) after failing to secure the co-operation of its rival. As reported in this publication, Prudential strongly rebuffed the proposed merger last Monday...

Shares in Canadian combine Fairfax Financial Holdings dropped almost 15 percent on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on 22 March. The slump occurred after Fairfax – which owns a number of insurance companies including reinsurer Odyssey Re...

Strong investment income helped French reinsurer SCOR continue its recovery as it recorded a 22 percent increase in 2005 operating profits to EUR242mn, along with a 75 percent increase in net profit to EUR131mn. However, the legacy of the past...