November 2006/2

RK Harrison Insurance Brokers Ltd, the independent London market brokers, will appoint the former Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group executive Dominic Collins to replace its retiring executive chairman, Richard Corfield.

Stephen Way has resigned from HCC Insurance Holdings, the company he founded in 1974, following a company investigation over its stock-option granting practices.

Oxygen Holdings plc, the London market intermediary backed by high profile figures such as ICAP founder Michael Spencer and former Marsh president Bob Clements, has continued the expansion of its broking operation with the acquisition of the business of S

German reinsurer Hannover Re reported a “gratifying” third quarter result in which the group posted net income of EUR123.5mn.

Bermudian (re)insurer Max Re Capital Ltd today (14 November) announced that acting chairman and CEO W Marston Becker has been permanently appointed to the position.

Aspen Insurance Holdings – the Bermudian domiciled (re)insurer which lost three of its four underwriting heads this summer – revealed plans to leverage its balance sheet last week with a $200mn hybrid offering and details of a share buy-back.

Bermudian (re)insurer Allied World Assurance Co (AWAC) bounced back from 2005’s third quarter loss of $283.4mn with a strong $114mn contribution.

Troubled Bermudian reinsurer PXRE reported a small third quarter net profit last week (8 November) as it said it continues to look for alternatives to what looks to be an increasingly inevitable slide into run-off.

Scottish Re, the beleaguered Bermudian life reinsurer, lost almost half its value as its shares crashed last week.

Fears that the insurance industry would find itself penalised in the US courts if they declined Hurricane Katrina related payments were again soothed last week when a federal judge said State Farm should not have to pay more than a policyholder’s actual l

Resurgent UK insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) reported steady third quarter earnings with a group combined operating ratio of 93.1 percent and an operating result up 21 percent to £590mn (analysts’ consensus £592mn).

A High Court judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought by Lloyd’s Names against the UK government for the financial losses that hit them during the 1980s and 1990s on 9 November.

The trial of the ‘Independent Three’ former directors of the collapsed UK insurer Independent Insurance, has been set down for 14 May 2007 at Southwark Crown Court, according to the Serious Fraud Office.

Novae Syndicates Ltd, Novae Group plc’s Lloyd’s platform, maintained unchanged forecasts on its managed syndicates for 2004 and 2005 and the 2002 run-off years last week.

The legal wrangle surrounding contract wordings for the electronic claims file (ECF) has been resolved as the Market Reform Group (MRG) has reached agreement with key market bodies on the procedural rules which will underpin the use of the Insurers' Marke

Expanding Italian (re)insurance giant Generali last week (9 November) reported consensus beating third quarter earnings of EUR538mn that were 23.1 percent up on the prior-year period.

Resurgent European reinsurer SCOR announced an 87 percent rise in its net income for the first nine months of 2006 on 8 November.

German insurance giant Allianz reported third quarter net income of EUR1.6bn, almost double the EUR894mn it recorded in the prior-year period on 10 November.

Almost a year after unveiling the first motor securitisation, French giant AXA has become the first primary insurer to transfer mortality risk to the capital markets.

Eliot Spitzer, whose investigations into the insurance industry continue to reverberate and precipitated Hank Greenberg’s departure from American International Group, has been voted Governor of New York state by a landslide.

Bermudian-based energy mutual Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd (OCIL) was stripped of its key A- rating by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 6 November.

Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) has appointed the head of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Insurance Annette Court to become the chief executive of its European General Insurance operations.

German reinsurer Hannover Re has become the latest company to be granted a licence by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, enabling it to write life and health reinsurance in the People’s Republic of China.

Munich Re, the world’s second largest reinsurer, raised its full-year earnings forecast and announced its first ever share buy-back on 7 November as it became the latest industry carrier to benefit from the benign claims season.