March 2013/2

US insurer American Safety Insurance (ASI) may become the latest "buy to kill" acquisition by a run-off company as the Bermudian Catalina revealed that it had built a near 6 percent stake in the firm last week.

Insurers may be more willing to deny executive liability coverage when wrongdoings involve child abuse, following a high profile judgment in Pennsylvania last month.

White Mountains has said that its $20mn legal wrangle with Allstate over the $1.01bn sale of Esurance has entered arbitration.

Oil giant BP is entitled to claim from rig owner Transocean's $750mn liability cover in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, a US circuit judge has ruled.

Marsh does not have to disclose correspondence between the firm and the former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, who waged a campaign against the broking giant in 2004-05, a New York district judge said on 8 March.

American International Group (AIG) paid $11mn to US state regulators in October last year to settle investigations over its life insurance claims processes, according to regulatory filings.

Gabriel Bernardino, the chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa), has given a stiff warning to national regulators about the dangers of the low interest rate environment.

The Florida Catastrophe Risk Capital Access Facility (FCRCAF) would be set up within the State Board of Administration (SBA), which also oversees the state-backed cat fund.

Florida's legislative session kicked off last week with two bills passed at committee stage that aim to reduce the ultimate taxpayer exposure by encouraging more risk transfer to the private (re)insurance market

The alternative reinsurance market has increased its share of the $18bn premium global property cat reinsurance market to 15 percent and is expected to make further inroads...

State Farm is returning to the cat bond market with a new Merna Re earthquake issuance.

Reinsurers are likely to pursue third party capital vehicles with longer-term horizons such as cat funds or sidecars in 2013, while the number of temporary, opportunistic structures looks set to diminish, a panel of experts agreed at the annual gathering of professional involved in securitisations.