March 2010/4

Chubb Group has had its financial strength rating (FSR) of A++ affirmed by AM Best.

Chubb has agreed to provide US insurer Starr International with workers' compensation coverage for its construction, energy and environmental customers.

Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) has bought US mid-tier independent broker Thomas Rutherfoord for an undisclosed sum, as it continues to build a nationwide business through acquisitions.

Moody's has taken Swiss Re off negative watch in response to the reinsurer's efforts to de-risk its legacy and investment portfolios.

Hartford Financial Services Group will buy back $3.4bn of its shares issued under the US government's bailout scheme, following a dramatic return to profit in 2009.

A June creditor meeting date has been fixed for the proposed Camomile solvent scheme, setting the pace for the run-off market just days after the UK High Court gave an all-clear to Minster.

Despite the devastating Equitas judgement last year, the UK quoted run-off investor and service provider Randall & Quilter (R&Q) now says it should break even following a "more favourable claims experience" in its insurance division.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has set out a demanding 2010 programme, requiring greater resources and an "inherently more confrontational and risky" approach.

The UK regulator Financial Services Authority (FSA) has called on the insurance industry to go back to basics and focus on turning an underwriting profit.

A surge in profits for Italian insurance giant Generali has been overshadowed by continuing speculation about the company's leadership, after 85 year-old chairman Antoine Bernheim confirmed last month that he would not seek another term.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has acknowledged that there are "major unresolved issues" with Solvency II as it fights hard at the Europe-wide level to secure the best possible deal for UK-regulated firms.

The insurance industry has comfortably passed a three-pronged stress test imposed by the EU regulator amid building irritation over the heavier capital requirements that could be imposed under the forthcoming Solvency II regime.

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.

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.

Loss estimates from the 27 February Chilean quake are continuing to accumulate and are likely to breach the $4bn threshold by the end of the month.