March 2013/1

Banking on Brazil; Paying dividends; Singapore Saville; Amlin acquires; Marsh UK shuffle; Marsh UK shuffle; ANV moves; Xchanging restores…

Investment guru Warren Buffett hailed the healthy underwriting profits from his insurance subsidiaries in the annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, but warned of "dim prospects" ahead

RMS is planning to update two components of its US hurricane model under the new Version 13 release due out this July, with the changes set to bring down its view of hurricane risk from Version 11

Aspen Insurance Holdings remains committed to open market primary US property cat despite taking down its probable maximum loss (PML) on the line by $50mn in 2013 for wind and for quake

Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) has agreed a three-year deal to provide risk capacity for Bermudian fund manager Nephila Capital, marking the first time the pair have formalised their relationship over a longer term

American International Group (AIG)'s suit against Maiden Lane II, the vehicle created by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to buy toxic mortgage debt from the US insurance leviathan in 2008, was halted late last month

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co has filed a lawsuit against Travelers over an alleged breach of contract relating to asbestos-related claims

If a listed US company is being acquired in a large M&A transaction then it is almost guaranteed that a shareholder suit will follow. The odds are, however, that the shareholders won't benefit - but the lawyers might

Hollywood-based activist Patricia Asseff has sued the state-owned Citizens Property Insurance for "unfairly" seizing $190mn from Floridian homeowners, a court filing shows

The Bermuda Form - the liability wording developed by Bermudian start-up (re)insurers such as Ace and XL in the mid-1980s - was put to the test in the UK High Court last month and produced a positive verdict for insurers

The defunct, George Soros-backed reinsurer Glacier Re has withdrawn from arbitration proceedings and given up its claim to have Hurricane Ike claims covered by its 2008 Nelson Re cat bond

US insurer Nationwide Mutual has added another $270mn cat bond cover through a new Caelus Re issuance, as the coupon on the transaction fell by 2 percent during the marketing process...

A dearth of commercial bank lending to mid-sized companies in the US is creating an opportunity for insurers to invest in an asset class that typically offers yields at the high end of the corporate credit spectrum

A quartet of homeowners' insurers helped Louisiana Citizens reduce its share of the state homeowners' market from 4.1 percent at end-2011, when it had around $21.7bn of total insured value on its books, to 3.8 percent at end-2012

With firm order terms due in the market at time of going to press, Mississippi's insurer of last resort will be seen by some as a bellwether for other residual carriers due to renew cat programmes in the lead up to the 2013 hurricane season

While Florida grabs the limelight in the build-up to the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, it is also a key time for reinsurers participating in other wind-exposed states where there is interplay between public and private markets

(Re)insurers in our Bermudian composite (ex-White Mountains and Maiden) returned around two thirds of their net income through share repurchases in 2012, according to data compiled by The Insurance Insider

While composite and multinational insurers spook investors with dividend cuts, the specialty/reinsurance stocks keep the faith...

Quoted (re)insurers in our Bermuda universe grew their non-life net written premium (NWP) by 5 percent during 2012 to take the total to $51bn, according to data compiled by The Insurance Insider...

London market (re)insurance carriers delivered a stronger underwriting performance than their peers and rivals in Bermuda in 2012, according to analysis by The Insurance Insider

Despite the absence of cats (with apologies to Sandy, of course), many (re)insurers had to rely on prior-year reserves to eke out an underwriting profit

Zurich Insurance Group is restructuring its catastrophe reinsurance cover as it looks poised to become the latest cedant to bulk up its global cover after narrowing its specific European and US programmes

The renewal of Chubb's US cat programme poses a challenge for quoting reinsurers as they look to balance their desire for post-event payback with the need to make such protection economic for the cedant

Market sources have described the presence of Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance doyen Ajit Jain in Tokyo ahead of the 1 April catastrophe renewals as ominous

In contrast to other recent renewals, the rise of the alternative reinsurance markets is expected to have only a limited impact at 1 April due to Japanese cedants' circumspect approach to non-traditional underwriters

Japanese catastrophe excess-of-loss rates look set for a modest squeeze at the key 1 April renewals, but additional demand from the kyosai and the impact of the original rate rises on the vast quake pro-ratas will give reinsurers something to cheer

Why distribution is getting hotter (again)...

Private equity-backed US broking house AssuredPartners is planning to complete 20 to 25 transactions in 2013 as it seeks to build a position as a top-10 middle market broker in the US

As the London-headquartered independent brokers begin to file results for financial years ending in 2012, the overarching theme is robust top-line growth and high levels of reinvestment in new business platforms and teams

Significant uncertainty surrounds the scheduled 1 June reinsurance renewal for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), as the state's legislature considers reforms to either shore up the creaking wind pool or disband it altogether

Willis is marketing a new hybrid retrocession product that aims to address buyer fears about the basis risk of index covers, The Insurance Insider can reveal...

Bermudian carrier Axis has jettisoned founding CEO John Charman's objection to a Lloyd's platform and started actively pursuing a syndicate of its own, The Insurance Insider can reveal

The industry's largest catastrophe treaty, which is purchased by Japanese agricultural mutual Zenkyoren, is currently slated to get $1.3bn bigger at its 1 April renewal, The Insurance Insider can reveal