November 2011/4

Brit Insurance is improving the appeal of its under-performing UK business Brit Insurance Ltd (BIL) to potential buyers by looking at adverse development-type cover that would protect against the risk of under-reserving, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

$100mn tornado cat bond wiped outThe remaining $100mn tranche of American Family Mutual tornado cat bond Mariah Re 2010-1 is set to be a total loss, in what will be the third wipe-out of a cat bond this year. This comes after the lower-lying $100mn Mariah 2 issuance was written off by cat bond investors. But investors in the Mariah 1 notes were previously only expected to lose $11.6mn of their capital, according to loss reports from the end o

Validus has confirmed that it is withdrawing its interest in Transatlantic Re after the latter's board recommended a takeover by US specialty insurer Alleghany, as predicted by The Insurance Insider earlier today.

Lloyd's insurer Barbican has hired two senior executives to bolster its UK and specialty businesses, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

In the last 20 years much has been written on the rising tide of difference between the alignment of the interests of the executive class, the workforce and the shareholders that own the business.

The MS&AD-led property programmes of Sanyo-Matsushita and Sony are expected to suffer total losses from the Thai floods to inflict a $1.75bn gross loss on their insurers, The Insurance Insider understands.