November 2004/1

As third quarter results filter through from US and Bermudian property casualty (re)insurers, the full impact of the season's quartet of hurricanes is becoming clearer, with interim results hit hard across the board. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan a

MMC to lose thousands of staff In late September, senior Marsh executives from the broker's executive liability arm FINPRO met at a restaurant in New York to be told the broker would be making over a thousand redundancies which would include losses fro

Regulators' probes extend to yet more established methods; MMC's actions may prove decisive in preserving status When Kelvin Mackenzie, the legendary head of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun, sacked the newspaper's astrologer after he was accused of "r

Evidence suggests the cumulative effect of the US storms may reach $30bn Foresight is something the global reinsurance industry would love to possess but, in the absence of catastrophe astrologers, it has to rely on more conventional methods, such as c

Marsh was the most successful - if that is the correct phrase - broker to charge insurers' contingent commissions because it was the most organised. Unique among the multinationals, Marsh had created a focused market-facing arm - Marsh Global Broking - wh

Lloyd's announced on 10 November that it had successfully set terms for its £500mn subordinated debt issue after an extensive road show that took it to investors in the UK and continental Europe.

SEC and Department of Justice launch separate, renewed investigations into PNC and Brightpoint transactions; PR firm slammed for 'Talking Heads' ruse... Fresh from fending off accusations of PSA-related bid-rigging and fraud, world's largest insurer AI

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

David Schiff looks at financial strength... Insurance stocks are not as richly priced as they were in 1998, when investors and insurance-company CEOs alike seemed to believe that an insurance-company charter guaranteed a fifteen-percent return on equit

MMC’s difficulties extend overseas with financial irregularities in Marsh Ireland and the sacking of a senior employee in Marsh Ltd for “misconduct” Marsh's Irish subsidiary Marsh Ireland has revealed that it has a EUR6.7mn hole in its accounts - more

Earlier this month, Florida's attorney general Charlie Crist became the latest US regulator to open an investigation into alleged bid-rigging and insurance commission arrangements. Crist's office said that he had subpoenaed 10 insurance brokers: MMC,

In our regular monthly News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

Spectrum talks break down, BRIT in the frame After publicly stating dissatisfaction with the performance of personal lines business at its Lloyd's operation, The Insurance Insider understands that giant US insurer St Paul Travelers has been talking wit

Companies rarely volunteer to forego a lucrative proportion of their revenue streams but that is exactly what the industry's international brokers and large US retail brokers have been doing in the wake of Spitzer's allegations of price-fixing at Marsh.

Lloyd's insurer Kiln has reversed plans to withdraw its full participation on property catastrophe reinsurance Syndicate 557 following negotiations with Members' Agents. The Syndicate, which is de-empting for 2005 by nine percent on its 2004 stamp capa

Lloyd's insurer Wellington has outsourced its procurement of external professional advisors to back-office specialist Xchanging.

The re-election of George Bush in this month's presidential elections will give added impetus to efforts to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in 2005, according to Charles Landgraf, a leading lobbyist for TRIA extension with law firm LeBoeuf,

Lloyd's insurer Beazley announced a £105mn Rights Issue on 1 November with the lion's share directed to support the additional risk-based capital requirement fuelled by its increased participation on its Lloyd's Syndicates for the 2005 year. The insure

Besieged Swiss reinsurer Converium revealed on 4 November that Group CFO Martin Kauer had handed in his resignation and would be leaving the company in early 2005.

Marsh UK sacking 'tip of the iceberg'? Last year, UK Broker Heath Lambert lost a lucrative reinsurance account with the Australian Federal government after it admitted receiving "unauthorized commissions". It was an offence apparently similar to th