November 2010/2

Run-off consolidators face tough challenges in finding growth opportunities as the low interest-rate environment continues, the legal head of consolidator Tawa Management told AIRROC delegates in New Jersey.

Legacy (re)insurer Grafton completed a transfer for UK supermarket firm WM Morrison's captive run-off liabilities understood to be in the "tens of millions".

Legacy (re)insurers whose traditional sources of revenue are drying up while liabilities shrink in the UK are looking further afield, run-off industry rainmakers heard last month in New Jersey.

Legacy specialist RiverStone is set to reinsure-to-close the open years of Syndicate 376, one of the largest remaining syndicates in run-off in the Lloyd's market, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The Florida regulator has continued to ease barriers to foreign reinsurers, with the Bermuda operation of Lloyd's (re)insurer Hiscox the latest to secure a cut in its collateral requirements to 20 percent.

Ron Sandler rejected approaches from Lloyd's to take over from Lord Levene of Portsoken before events at nationalised UK bank Northern Rock effectively removed him from the running.

Ri3K's founding CEO Alex Letts has stepped down upon the firm's sale to fellow (re)insurance technology platform Qatarlyst.

US P&C rates continue to fall in soft market; Berkshire lukewarm on cat; Ambac files for Chapter 11; QBE underwriting chief; Marine follows Bender

Reinsurers weigh up UK motor quota share; QBE reinsurance rejig; Pensions shadow Miller; Lancashire picks Whelan; Russia with Lloyd's

Two senior broking executives have left Cooper Gay and Colemont Global Group as the organisations readjust following their mergers with US-based wholesale brokers.

Aon's out-of-court settlement of its "laptop in the pond" poaching dispute with Marsh ended the prospect of another acrimonious and protracted legal wrangle

London market brokers Tysers and Lonmar Global Risks are counting the days until a UK court verdict on a £2.5mn poaching case.

The future of Royal Palm Insurance has been cast into doubt after an acrimonious dispute with its founder Wallace "Locke" Burt ended in a $28mn arbitration defeat.

Failed investment bank Lehman Brothers' $250mn directors' and officers' (D&O) liability programme is rapidly being eroded by defence costs as the firm's bankruptcy filing rumbles on.

The ILS sector must innovate to compete with traditional players as the two markets encroach on each others' territory, according to speakers at the annual Trading Risk New York gathering last month.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has posted a stable outlook on State Farm and RenRe's $100mn joint venture sidecar-style transaction Top Layer Re, matching a recent action on State Farm.

Scor is the latest (re)insurer to set up its own insurance-linked investment fund, setting aside $100mn of seed capital for a dedicated fund that will be known as Atropos.

Convergence executives are hopeful that recent revisions to AIR Worldwide's European windstorm risk model will be positive for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

Three new catastrophe bond issuances at the start of the third quarter included the first solo US thunderstorm bond from a sponsor new to the market.

The fiercely independent Hardy board and the management of would-be acquirer Beazley are battling for the hearts and minds of Hardy's key investors.

Buy-out firms Apollo and CVC reveal details of £865mn takeover

Commentators scrutinising the big corporate brokers' third-quarter results for good news will have been buoyed by signs of recovery after a series of challenging quarters.

As Q3 financials filtered through in late October and early November, individual company loss estimates for the New Zealand earthquake began to mount.

The day of reckoning when reserve redundancies run dry is still some way off - at least that's the picture that emerged in Q3 results of the group of Bermuda-rooted (re)insurers The Insurance Insider has been tracking

Swiss Re, XL Capital and The Hartford Financial demonstrate strong recovery at Q3

Two new syndicates are to add £135mn to capacity at the beginning of the 2011 underwriting year at Lloyd's, as predicted by The Insurance Insider, while other ventures target a 1 April start date.

AmTrust Europe has parted company with its most senior actuary Sukie Harrar, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The overall market for UK solicitors' professional indemnity (PI) fell by 13 percent to £214mn despite the withdrawal of Quinn, previously the fourth-largest insurer in the class.

Lloyd's has decided to leave its upfront management and Central Fund charges unchanged for the fourth year in succession.

Private equity-backed Lloyd's insurer Ark is continuing its expansion plans with new hires and the capture of a Bermudian treaty book that it will migrate to London next year, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Private equity-backed Lloyd's insurer forms its own managing agency

Property Claim Services is understood to have put a $775mn initial industry insured loss estimate on the powerful storms that ripped through Arizona in the first week of October.

Bermudian stalwarts John Lummis and Jim Stanard have formed a management company, Flex Capital Advisors (FCA), that will underwrite reinsurance on behalf of companies and funds, and is set to sponsor a new $500mn start-up on the island.

Extra reinsurance demand may arise from model changes in 2011, in addition to the growing interest in aggregate covers (see lead article).

The development of earthquake losses is notoriously difficult to predict

The Insurance Insider examines the strategic choices that confront Apollo-CVC if 95 percent of Brit shareholders accept the recommended offer that values the UK insurer at £865mn

M&A talks between Israeli financial services conglomerate Clal Group and Lloyd's insurer Jubilee Group have ended without agreement on terms, The Insurance Insider understands.

UK broker aggregator Towergate Partnership is preparing to refinance its £650mn debt pile after an abortive effort earlier this year, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Brokers are pushing multi-year deals more aggressively than any time in the last 10 years. Underwriters are not being firm in resisting their overtures...

The soft market isn't ending but Solvency II and high frequency cat losses are spurring reinsurance demand in advance of the 1 January renewals...