March 2006/5

Lloyd’s insurer SVB Group is close to launching a new FSA authorized insurance company and change its trading name to Novae as it makes a break from its troubled past, Insider Week understands. The UK quoted insurer – which has battled for five years..

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...

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...

Lloyd’s insurer Hardy bucked the trend of underwriting losses when it reported profits of £7.5mn for 2005 on 22 March, underpinned by a positive underwriting result of £6.3mn. Despite the 17.8 percent increase on the previous year’s underwriting...

Fitch Ratings has predicted that a bird-flu pandemic would hit life insurers and their reinsurers hardest, although the rating agency said it did not believe this would lead to a widespread downgrading of (re)insurers.

Lloyd’s insurer Omega Underwriting Holdings plc (Omega) has reported a £6.7mn pre-tax profit in its maiden results as a listed company. The results follow a busy year for the company, which floated on London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment...

Troubled Bermudian reinsurer PXRE Group Ltd has negotiated a deal with Lloyd’s for “early settlement” of claims outstanding to the market, but has denied the move is connected to its possible re-entry to the market, Insider Week can reveal.

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...

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).

Heritage’s Syndicate 1245 is now predicting a loss of 52 percent capacity on its 2002 underwriting year. The Lloyd’s insurer decided last year to keep the syndicate open because of uncertainties relating to its controversial US bail bond losses.

Hannover Re may decide not to buy catastrophe protection from the traditional retrocessional markets because of the high cost, warned the reinsurer’s chief executive Wilhelm Zeller last week. The retro market is now “damned expensive”...