March 2014/5

The Insurance Insider's look-up table for all of the weekly, monthly and YTD share price movements of the companies in our updated composites

Lloyd's surpassed the £3bn profit threshold for the first time since 2009 last year, with its 80+ competing syndicates reporting a 14 percent rise in aggregated net income to £3.2bn following a lighter claims burden and higher reserve releases

Spanish (re)insurer Mapfre was among the strongest stock market performers last week with a gain of over 5 percent, easily surpassing The Insider 30 index of European and US insurance shares, which fell 0.22 percent

Four of the eight years of account left open at Lloyd's in 2012 were closed last year, but two syndicates managed by Argenta and Jubilee failed to close their 2011 years, the market's 2013 annual results revealed.

It was a busy week for Catalina last week as the legacy acquisition firm announced that it had fought off competition from Enstar to purchase Sparta Insurance Holdings as well as completing the previously announced deal to purchase run-off reinsurer Alea Group.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is one of just two regulators worldwide to receive an A grade in an international ranking of financial supervisors based on their handling of investigations.

Hiscox CEO Bronek Masojada last week renewed his criticism of the proposed structure of the UK's Flood Re scheme ahead of the draft legislation's return to the House of Lords today (31 March).

London Market Group (LMG) chairman Steve Hearn announced plans last week (25 March) to extend the organisation's remit in order to tackle the London market's diminishing position as a global insurance hub.

A Chicago law firm has asked a US court to force Malaysia Airlines and plane manufacturer Boeing to release documents relating to crew training and the aircraft's design following the loss of flight MH370.

Costa Rican insurer Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) is demanding a retrial in a long-running legal battle with Howden and Miami-based broker Hemispheric Reinsurance Group (HRG), after a Miami Court rejected allegations the brokers had charged excessive amounts for their services.

A UK court of appeal judge has dealt a blow to the credit hire market, ruling that the onus is on the insured party to replace a car that has been written off as soon as it is economically possible.

Troubled UK general insurer RSA, forced last week to raise £748mn ($1.25bn) from stock market investors to repair its tattered balance sheet, has taken a series of other steps since the start of the year to shore up its finances, the prospectus for its rights issue shows.