October 2004/4

UK headquartered broker JLT Risk Solutions has opened an office in Dubai’s International Financial Centre.

Reinsurance broker Benfield launched a new report devoted to the global D&O and Financial Lines last Wednesday (13 October).

Everest Re’s UK head Mark de Saram is to become the managing director and chief executive of the reinsurer’s Bermudian arm, Everest Bermuda.

UK general insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) had its Standard & Poor’s (S&P) ratings outlook upgraded from negative to stable last week (12 October) as the agency recognised the company’s continued turnaround progress.

Risk-based capital allocation models and better risk modelling techniques, together with improved underwriting discipline, have put the London market in a better position than ever before to counter the destabilising effects of the underwriting cycle, acc

Fresh from Marsh’s announcement on 15 October that it would suspend all its PSA style arrangements, the insurance companies named in Eliot Spitzer’s complaint against the world’s largest broker were also quickly distancing themselves from the practice.

Marsh joins parent on negative outlook Rating agencies have reacted to the furore surrounding Spitzer’s PSA investigation by placing MMC’s credit ratings, the parent of implicated broker Marsh, on negative outlook.

Marsh has submitted to Eliot Spitzer’s shock 14 October allegations of price-fixing by replacing its chief executive Ray Groves and revealing that it will no longer charge insurers contingent commissions, often known as Placement Service Agreements (PSAs)

After several weeks of indifferent news, troubled Swiss reinsurer Converium received a welcome boost last Friday (15 October) with the announcement from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) that it was upgrading its insurer financial strength rating from “BBB” to “BBB

$20bn wiped off AIG in one day; other insurers and brokers, as yet formally unrelated to investigation, see price declines as investors tar industry with the same brush Tens of billions of dollars were wiped off insurance stocks last week as investors,

As predicted by Insider Week two weeks ago (see Insider Week No.142), the campaigning New York attorney-general Eliot Spitzer is suing Marsh over its long-established practice of charging insurers commissions in return for placing business with

Lloyd’s insurer Ascot announced plans last Wednesday (13 October) to set up a Paris operation to tap into continental catastrophe and risk business.