May 2006/4

Aon Ltd, the UK arm of broking giant Aon Corp, has ditched plans to move its London operations out of the City of London and to the Docklands.

AM Best has given start-up Bermudian (re)insurer CastlePoint Reinsurance Company Ltd an A- financial strength rating. CastlePoint's parent company, CastlePoint Holdings Ltd, was launched last month with $265mn of private equity capital by the...

UK general insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) announced last Thursday (11 May) first quarter pre-tax profits of £122mn, unchanged from the corresponding period of 2005.

German giant Munich Re has announced quarterly profits of EUR979mn on the 9 May, up 41.7 percent from the EUR691 in the prior-year period.

Shares in American International Group (AIG) fell 5 percent late last week as investors sold stakes following a 16 percent drop in first quarter net income to $3.2bn on Wednesday (10 May).

AXA is believed to be again working with the French investment bank IXIS in developing another innovative risk securitisation, according to reports.

Jardine Lloyd Thomson Group plc is in talks to buy its smaller rival, the resurgent Heath Lambert Group, in a move which might spark another round of broker consolidation fever, according to sources.

The corporate scandals that have hit the US in the last few years have made the directors and officers (D&O) market, the toughest to administer claims, according to experts at a London-based conference.

London is on course to meet the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) 85 percent contract certainty deadline by the end of the year, according to the findings of a survey by IT company Sungard.

London market broker Tyser & Co has been refused leave to appeal a decision that upheld market custom that underwriters are entitled to placing and claims documentation held by broker.

German insurer Allianz reported a 35 percent increase in profits in its revised first quarter results on 12 May. Net profit rose to EUR1.78bn this year from EUR1.32bn in the prior-year period.

The shares prices of the London Market’s blue-chip insurers were again dragged down today (15 May) as uncertainty continued to grip trading on the London Stock Exchange.