November 2009/3

 Allied World opens in Singapore; Maiden agrees GMAC quota share with American Capital

Ace appoint new Mann to structured risks role; Willis post new CEO for Dutch operations; Endurance appoints Miller to build US Excess Casualty; Torus Re appoints senior casualty U/W.

<!--[if gte mso 9]--> The former head of Spanish bank Santander's hedge fund investment arm, Optimal Investment Services SA, has been charged with criminal mismanagement of client funds that were placed with US fraudster Bernard Madoff.

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, said scheme advisor KPMG.

"Mega claims" are now a common occurrence in the power (re)insurance market, with almost half of the aggregate $9.85bn losses recorded over the last ten years resulting from just 16 claims.

GIC Re, the reinsurance arm of the Indian state-owned General Insurance Corporation (GIC), is setting up a natural catastrophe pool for local African and Asian (re)insurance companies.

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

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.

Marsh & McLennan Agency has acquired Texas-based independent insurance agent Insurance Alliance, marking the first step in Marsh's strategic drive towards creating a US agency network.

London-headquartered Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) bucked the trend of the global brokers with a Q3 trading statement that detailed continued organic growth and "robust" performance at its London market division.

Randall & Quilter (R&Q) has revealed the identity of the US insurer it acquired earlier this year after the transaction received regulating assent.

Fraudulent claims in the Lloyd's market could represent a significant proportion of premium income, according to the London Market Claims Council (LMCC), with senior industry figures calling for collaborative action to tackle the problem.

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).