October 2005/2

Cable & Wireless captive was ‘surrounded in secrecy and protected by lies’ Allegations of fraud, conspiracy and obfuscation were laid out in the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this month with opening submissions by telecommunications firm...

Troubles mount as company receives Wells Notice AM Best has placed Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe and its subsidiaries under review with negative implications for financial strength and debt ratings.

Despite the estimated £1.4bn ($2.5bn) blow from Hurricane Katrina, Lloyd’s still expects to make a full year profit in 2005. This was one of the messages from Lloyd’s first ever interim results published 5 October which show a profit of £1.38bn for...

Solicitors administering the estate of a deceased Lloyd’s name have been ordered to refund over £140,000 in legal fees after the name was declared insolvent. The ruling, which could have wide-reaching consequences for solicitors, means that...

Giant insurer American International Group (AIG) has upped the ante in its increasingly acrimonious dispute with former chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, by taking legal action in an effort to seize $20bn of its own shares from his control...

But legacy of past errors weighs on project’s future Former Cox CEO Michael Dawson has made his presence felt as acting chairman of Kinnect almost immediately, releasing a missive to the market on 4 October in which he lays out a new vision for the...

Kiln Underwriting has confirmed that it will write no further wind-exposed Gulf of Mexico (GOM) risks for the remainder of the 2005 hurricane season. In an interview with The Insurance Insider, Charles Franks, active underwriter on Syndicate 510...

Energy losses as a result of Hurricane Rita are set to be much higher than initially expected according to industry experts. The storm, which at its peak reached category five, blew into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) on 22-24 September, threading a path...

Following the news that the first Hurricane Katrina lawsuit had been filed against insurers in the US (see Insider Week No. 191), law firms have begun to brief insurance clients in earnest over the challenges they will face in the likely deluge of...

With a general consensus that the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the (re)insurance sector will be “market-changing”, industry observers are beginning to comment on just how the underwriting cycle and rating environment might change.

Shares in Bermudian insurer have dropped alarmingly by over 30 percent this month in the wake of substantial Katrina losses and poor results from the first-half of 2005. At the beginning of September shares in Goshawk were trading at over 36p on...

The Property Claim Services unit of the Insurance Services Office has released its estimate of insured losses incurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina at approximately $34.4bn, making it the most expensive catastrophe ever for US property/casualty...