November 2008/2

Arch launches $400mn Dublin hub; FHCF fears mount; Airline premiums up; Rock resigns from Ironshore; Spitzer charges dropped; Carroll to leave Swiss Re

Expansive independent (re)insurance broker Cooper Gay & Co has hired a 10-strong aerospace team from Benfield’s London division.

A number of Lloyd's stocks have seen significant uplift in recent weeks as investors gamble on a 2009 ratings uplift fuelled by the AIG crisis.

The sluggish 2008 reinsurance market saw Guy Carpenter’s underlying revenues fall 10 percent at the third quarter from $226mn to $205mn, although the firm’s cost-cutting programme enabled the margin to remain unchanged.

A disagreement over the issue of mandatory commission disclosure was behind the October decision by the London Market Insurance Brokers’ Committee (LMBC) to break away from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association...

Independent reinsurance broker RK Carvill concluded months of consultation with private equity firm Stone Point Capital with the separation of its underwriting and broking businesses in a corporate restructure...

Bermuda’s invasion of Lloyd’s continued unabated as Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings ended its long search for a Lime Street platform with an agreement to buy Marlborough Underwriting Agency Ltd from Berkshire Hathaway.

The uplift in mergers and acquisitions activity in the Lloyd’s market over the last two years has contributed to a shift in the make-up of leading investors in the sector.