November 2009/2

Rating agency Fitch said its concerns over reinsurers' ability to tap capital markets following a significant catastrophe have "sufficiently eased" after revising its outlook on the global reinsurance sector from negative to stable.

Spanish competition authority the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC) has fined local insurers Asefa, Mapfre and Caser as well as leading global reinsurers, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Scor a total of EUR120mn for operating a cartel.

Marketform, the Lloyd’s insurer majority owned by the US firm Great American Insurance Group, is undertaking a significant reshuffle of its executive operations to improve its “corporate governance”.

UK insurer Brit has laid out the timetable for its redomicile to the Netherlands in a reorganisation that it is expected will see a new holding company listed on the London Stock Exchange on 21 December.

So-called ‘mega-claims’ are now a common occurence in the power (re)insurance market, with almost half of the $9.85bn total loss recorded over the last ten years the result of just 16 claims.

The UK High Court has sanctioned schemes of arrangement for the 48 solvent and insolvent companies that make up the Trimark 1968 and prior years pools schemes, after creditors voted "overwhelmingly" in favour at a 9 October meeting.

Just under 200 investors, advisors and sponsors gathered in New York for Trading Risk's annual executive briefing last month to discuss market issues.

Industry loss warranty (ILW) volumes in Q4 have been boosted by livecat trading during October's Typhoon Melor and the purchase of Europe-exposed and US quake peril contracts.

The auction for German state-owned run-off group BF Rückversicherung has moved forward with the joint bid from German firm GLOBAL Rück and Randall & Quilter (R&Q) in pole position.

The industry loss warranty (ILW) market was finally able to settle contracts impacted by the 2008 US hurricane season after PCS finalised its industry onshore loss estimate...

As the Q3 financial reporting season draws towards its close, there is growing evidence that (re)insurers’ boards are under pressure to focus on capital management.

As investors wallowed in financial markets despair at the start of 2009, few would have predicted the speed and size of the bounce in equities that began in mid-March.