November 2009/3

Axis Reinsurance has requested that a US district judge reconsider agreeing to award a former Refco Inc vice president an extra $7.5mn in settlement fees - on top of $10mn the insurer has already paid out to cover defence costs.

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".

Despite some concessions being made to life industry concerns, European supervisory body CEIOPS' final advice to the European Commission on how to implement the Solvency II directive has failed to satisfy the Corporation of Lloyd's.

JLT energy broking partner Paddy McMurray is to join Alesco, AJ Gallagher's acquisitive international wholesale energy broking venture, The Insurance Insider has learned.

Scor has accepted defeat in its dispute with Allianz over the German insurer's 2007 settlement with World Trade Center (WTC) developer Larry Silverstein.

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continued its recovery last week with $220m in further bond issuance announced.

The determination of American International Group (AIG) shareholders to cling to any glimmer of good news saw the troubled firm's share price leap by almost 5 percent in trading early last week before essentially closing flat for the week on 13 November.

Spanish competition authority the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC) has fined local insurers Asefa, Mapfre and Caser and leading global reinsurers Munich Re, Swiss Re and Scor a total of EUR120mn, for operating what it described as a price cartel for decennial liability insurance in the Spanish market.

Class of 2001 Bermudian Montpelier Re could be the next (re)insurer to signal a return of capital to investors and sanction a new share buyback programme as early as its board meeting this week, according to a note from Barclays Capital.

Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), the parent company for brokers Marsh and Guy Carpenter, paid $435mn to settle securities and ERISA class actions last week.

Lloyd's and international (re)insurer Amlin issued an upbeat 10-month trading statement today (16 November), with strong investment returns and a benign claims environment combining with large reserve releases to hold out the prospect of bumper full-year results.

An inability to prove your loss is traditionally a major stumbling block to achieving a reinsurance recovery. But this is no longer the case, following a UK High Court decision last week in the dispute between Equitas and Randall & Quilter (R&Q).