October 2005/2

The US commutation Rendez-Vous - organised by the UK run-off firm Cavell and the US run-off association AIRROC - looks set to attract more than 200 delegates to its inaugural event later this month in New Jersey.

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.

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...

Aon UK has confirmed that it is to lose up to 750 jobs in a major restructuring of its Risk Services and Specialty divisions. As revealed by Insider Week on 26 September, the broker is to place its employees into “consultation” which is expected to...

Despite warnings that Hurricane Katrina could trigger CAT bonds it seems likely that most will be unaffected. It seemed that a number of CAT bonds were under threat as Katrina made its way across the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) as a Category Five storm.

The former MMC chief executive Jeffrey Greenberg has established a private equity investment company Aquiline Investment Group that will back insurance and financial services companies, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

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.

As the industry begins to question the reliability of catastrophe loss modellers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, there is still great variation on the estimates of the losses.

The growing frequency of downgrade clauses could trigger a run on the bank if the rating agencies react with a slew of negative actions. The threat of a Post-Katrina liquidity crunch has grown as the rating agencies have become more aggressive...

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...

In our regular monthly International News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

The former GoshawK chief executive Chris Fagan is set to acquire the run-off Bermudian reinsurer Overseas Partners Re Ltd (OP Re) with backing from Japanese private equity house Nikko Principal Investments Ltd.