November 2008/2

Aviation pool Global Aerospace Underwriting Management (GAUM) leads the $47mn hull cover for the Air New Zealand-owned Airbus A320 that crashed yesterday (27 November) in Perpignan, The Insurance Insider understands.

Amlin plc is raising capital to form a new quota share syndicate for 2009 financed by Lloyd’s Names to take advantage of the improving market conditions, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The audacious hijacking of the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star 400 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya earlier this month upped the ante for piracy in the region and is causing hull, cargo and P&I underwriters to look closely at policy wordings...

BMS Group has reached a settlement with former senior employees and rival London market broker CJ Coleman (CJC) over claims of conspiracy and gross breach of duty that it brought to the UK High Court on 24 November, The Insurance Insider has learnt.

Fabrice Desnos, CEO of Credit insurance specialist Euler Hermes UK has told The Insurance Insider that an increasing number of risks “have become uninsurable in the strictest sense” and underwriters are having to be more selective...

The acrimonious defection of a UK construction team to London market broker RFIB Group has failed to wrestle the major Balfour Beatty civil engineering account, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Private equity backed insurance group Hyperion is poised to take on Benfield Corporate Risk's (BCR) US wholesale property/casualty unit to its broking arm Howden, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

American International Group (AIG) has slashed senior executive remuneration as a gesture to its new US political paymasters and in an attempt to speed the group to recovery, with CEO Ed Liddy earning a $1 salary for 2008-2009.

London-based captives and mutual manager Heritage has received the green light to establish Heritage Insurance Management (Bahrain) WLL (HIMB) on the Persian Gulf island kingdom Bahrain.

Eric Dinallo, superintendent of the New York Insurance Department, has pulled plans for the state to regulate credit default swaps (CDS) it considers insurance.

BMS Group brought its claims of conspiracy and gross breach of duty against former senior employees, competitor CJ Coleman & Co (CJC) and its CEO David Merry to the UK High Court today (20 November).

The timetable for implementing Solvency II is likely to be delayed to 2013 as the proposal for European-wide insurance regulation struggles in murky political waters and amidst the current financial turmoil.