November 2003/3

The UK’s second largest general insurer Brit Insurance Holdings Plc has bolstered its casualty arm by appointing four new underwriters, including former Limit director Peter Battle.

Aviation lawyer Sean Gates has launched a new legal practice specialising in aerospace, commercial and private equity law. Gates and Partners will include Dan Soffin, and Adosh Chatrath, both former partners with Gates’ former practice Beaumont and Son.

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) president Mike Pickens has advocated modernisation of state insurance regulation in the US, but baulked at suggestions that power should be taken away at the state level, as some have suggested with p

XL Re Europe announced last week the opening of its Paris underwriting office. The office will underwrite non-life business in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and will be headed up by the current head of the company’s property department Jeremy Hindle.

AM Best has reaffirmed the ‘A’ (Excellent) financial strength rating of Lloyd's Syndicate 510, the RJ Kiln-managed Lloyd’s syndicate, citing excellent current and prospective operating performance and business position.

Insurer The Hartford Financial Services Group announced a 29 percent increase in net income for the third quarter of 2003.

Mutual fund hit by lawsuits, client withdrawals, ratings downgrades

Bermudan specialty lines insurer Axis Capital Holdings reported a 60 percent increase in Q3 earnings, helped by a more than doubling of gross written premiums.

Berkshire Hathaway posted a 58 percent increase in third-quarter earnings including investment gains last Friday (7 November).

Post 9/11 start-up Endurance kept its pace into the third quarter, almost doubling net income for the period from $28.9mn to $56.5mn, or $0.83 per diluted share compared to $0.48 in 2002. Net income for the year-to-date stands at $174.5mn, or $2.68 per sh

Fitch Ratings upped the stakes in its robust stance with reinsurers last week when it questioned the motives behind the latest round of capital raising.

Last Thursday (6 November 2003), troubled French reinsurer SCOR announced a loss of EUR349mn for the first nine months of the year as it struggles to cope with prior year adverse development and flagging attempts to commute liabilities from its Bermudian