March 2010/4

The direct and facultative (D&F) market looks set to take a substantial proportion of losses from the Chile earthquake, with key facultative sectors such as pulp and paper and energy among the industrial areas most heavily affected.

Everest Re has effectively no retrocessional cover to protect itself from further losses incurred from the 27 February Chile quake, The Insurance Insider understands.

Changes in American International Group (AIG)'s catastrophe reinsurance buying has significantly increased the group's net exposure to the Chilean earthquake loss, The Insurance Insider has learned.

Amlin and Hiscox have become the first of the big syndicates to estimate their cost from the 27 February weekend disasters with forecasts could take the market's total loss bill to the industry's heavy first quarter of claims close to $1bn.

Higher spreads for capital market cessions are justified in the current market climate, Chubb chief risk officer Joel Aronchick told an industry audience in New York last week (18 March).

State Farm is approaching the market with a partial replacement of its expiring Merna Re transaction, targeting up to $700mn of US quake cover for the US insurer, sister title Trading Risk understands.

Guy Carpenter's global COO, Charlie Fry, is set to leave MMC's reinsurance broker at the end of the month, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Lloyd's listed insurers saw 2009 pre-tax profits surge threefold in the aggregate as benign underwriting conditions combined with a reversal of fortunes in the investment markets.

When Lloyd's announces its annual results on Wednesday (24 March), profits are likely to be a fifth lower than they would otherwise have been due to the hefty fees paid out to lawyers, adjusters and forensic accountants over claims, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Lloyd's will unveil full-year results for 2010 that are likely to closely test the record pre-tax earnings of £3.85bn the insurance market achieved in those halcyon, post-Katrina days of 2006-07.

Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings has announced that its main holding company is to redomicile from Bermuda to Luxembourg, following the trend of other (re)insurers moving their tax jurisdiction away from the mid-Atlantic island.

Amlin is understood to be a lead market on the first of RSA Insurance Group's two treaty programmes heavily impacted by last month's Chile earthquake.