May 2013/3

Chinese carriers are taking significant participations on large US and global property programmes as they look to diversify exposures and grow their premium bases

Weekly share price movements and key data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers and brokers

A Florida district court has refused to throw out a class action suit against QBE and Bank of America that accused the pair of colluding in force-placed insurance deals.  

US insurance lawyer Chip Birthisel has urged (re)insurers to opt for federal courts over state courts to limit the risk of anti-insurer bias from elected judges.

A New York district judge has dismissed a private Libor suit against UK-headquartered Barclays bank, saying that many of the plaintiffs' claims were "non-actionable puffery".

A bill to revive the financially infirm Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (Twia) has ground to a halt in part because its sponsor did not seek to build a consensus, a lawyer close to the legislative process said.

The new CEO of UK trade body the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) last week vowed to have the "courage to stand up and speak out" against regulatory excess.

Berkshire Hathaway has had its counterparty credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor's (S&P) from AA+ to AA with a negative outlook on all the group's ratings - including financial strength - partly due to capital adequacy questions.

Traditional (re)insurers that describe the emergence of capital markets-backed alternative capacity as unsustainable may be in denial, Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA) wrote in a review of first quarter results from the ILS market.

The fourth Florida-specific cat bond of 2013 is now marketing to investors through a new private deal, The Insurance Insider can reveal...

Earlier this year Trading Risk reported that start-up fund manager Stone Ridge had successfully raised $350mn for two new ILS funds, while fixed-income specialist Pine River had hired convergence market executive Al Selius to oversee investment of up to 5 percent of two of its flagship funds to the ILS sector.

Generalist investors - such as pension funds and other mainstream fund managers - are continuing to lift their share of new cat bond issuance in 2013, according to updated statistics obtained by sister publication Trading Risk.