November 2008/2

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.

Legislation to reform the Lloyd’s Act 1982 officially came into force today (19 November) in a move that the UK government said will modernise the operation of the world’s oldest insurance market.

The Aon Benfield deal is due to close on 28 November after the final regulatory obstacles to the £844mn cash tie-up have been completed.

Amlin plc has predicted a strong rise in reinsurance rating levels as insurers look to retain less of their exposures, reversing the trend of recent years.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared Aon Corporation's proposed takeover of reinsurance broker Benfield Group, removing one of the final potential obstacles to the deal.

Lloyd's based (re)insurers Chaucer and Catlin, have each posted bullish outlooks for 2009 (re)insurance market conditions in respective interim management statements.

Zurich Financial Services Group (ZFS) posted a net income of $2.8bn for the last 9 months ending 30 September, a decrease of 32 percent on the same period last year.

Hurricane Ike, which made landfall as a category two hurricane over Galveston Island, Texas on 17 September after smashing Cuba and the Caribbean, confounded modelling agencies by forming much further west in the Atlantic than any other storm.

The International Underwriting Association (IUA) has thrown its weight behind the proposed Lloyd's messaging hub and announced that it will take part in the pilot of the system, which is due to take place in early 2009 and go live later in the year.

Deciding the London structure for the combined reinsurance intermediary was always going to be awkward, but this morning senior brokers at the soon-to-be merged firm discovered their new lines of responsibility, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Outsourcing specialist Xchanging has said that revenue growth during the four months ending 31 October has been ‘slightly ahead’ of the board’s expectations in a bullish interim management, despite being ruled out of the bidding for the Lloyd’s messaging

Troubled Australian insurance group IAG has confirmed it is placing its Singapore-based Lloyd’s Syndicate 4455 into run-off and will also close its London-based Lloyd’s managing agent Diagonal.