March 2010/4

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) wants to expand the level of coverage that it can offer member countries in the wake of the Haiti earthquake disaster in January.

US P&C reinsurer profits strengthened by almost 50 percent last year, as a cat-heavy 2008 gave way to an exceptionally benign environment in 2009.

US commercial insurers did secure rate rises in some lines last year, but these were mostly offset by decreases elsewhere as the global insurance market resolutely refused to turn round, say researchers for professional services company Towers Watson.

Natural catastrophe and man-made losses are set to surge in 2010 and could even be five times as high as last year's figure of $26bn, Swiss Re warned last week in its latest Sigma study.

Data provider ISO has teamed up with Toronto-based MSA Research to launch Property Claims Services (PCS) in Canada.

Transatlantic Re is set to open a branch office in Bermuda to underwrite a book of property cat and retro on the island, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The Lloyd's and London market directors' and officers' (D&O) insurers that underwrote the $90mn+ policy for Stanford Financial Group (SFG) executives must pay out the insureds' defence costs, US appeal judges have ruled.

Omega Insurance Holding's toppled CEO Richard Tolliday is in line for a bumper compensation package that could exceed $6mn, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued a "warning notice" that has stalled Pamplona Capital's plans to build a significant stake in Lloyd's insurer Chaucer, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg - former CEO of American International Group (AIG) - has sold the majority of his remaining shares in the insurance group to UBS.

Members of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) swung back to profit in 2009, reporting collective net income of $12.4bn compared to a marginal loss of $125mn in 2008.

Insurance losses from man-made and natural catastrophes in the first quarter of the year have now mounted to $16bn, in sharp contrast to the benign claims run in 2009, according to analysis by our sister publication Inside FAC.