November 2010/4

Fears that reinsurance losses from the New Zealand earthquake may be worse than initially expected were confirmed last week, with Platinum Underwriters reporting rising costs from the 4 September catastrophe.

QBE has continued its North American acquisition drive with an agreement to purchase Bermudian RenaissanceRe's US insurance operations for around $275mn.

The American International Group (AIG) stake owned by Hank Greenberg and the Starr Group has fallen in value from $32bn to just $590mn on a precipitous drop in share value and the gradual selling down of the stake.

Kiln, the Lloyd's subsidiary of insurance giant Tokio Marine, confirmed last week that Edward Creasy is to step down as chairman after 11 years at the firm.

Bermuda-domiciled Lloyd's carrier Omega Insurance Holdings has acquired additional reinsurance cover after it was dragged to a first-half loss by catastrophe activity and then hit by the New Zealand earthquake in September.

Shares in Lloyd's insurer Chaucer plc closed last week up 2 percent as investors responded positively to a solid trading statement and a new strategy that includes ambitious growth aspirations and a more aggressively leveraged balance sheet.

In the 15 years since corporate capital has been active at Lloyd's, there have been a number of false dawns for an imminent wave of consolidation among listed Lime Street insurers.

They say that truth is the first casualty of war. And it is hard to know what to believe in the war of words currently taking place, as part of the latest episode of global economic woe.

The UK Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has ordered an audit of insurers providing professional indemnity (PI) cover to the industry amid growing concern over the misreporting of income on compulsory cover, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Guy Carpenter is continuing to build its Paris office from the fallout of the Aon Benfield merger, after securing the services of Emmanuel Dubreuil.

Six months after the Bangkok riots only a handful of claims have been paid despite initial loss estimates for the London market ranging from $500mn to $1bn, The Insurance Insider has learned.

The international (re)insurance community will be looking anxiously at the final terms negotiated this week for the European Union's bailout of the Irish government for any sign of movement on the country's favourable corporate tax rates and rules.