October 2005/2

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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...

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...

To avoid the threat of downgrades, Bermuda’s (re)insurers are being forced to tap the capital markets Bermuda’s (re)insurers are rushing to the capital markets to repair the damage Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have wreaked to their balance sheets and...

MMC’s London based wholesale arm Price Forbes is in advanced management buy-out talks, The Insurance Insider can reveal. The move follows New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer’s investigations into the industry which have led to MMC’s rivals Aon...

Supporters of solvent schemes of arrangement have received a series of welcome boosts following July’s High Court refusal to approve the British Aviation Insurance Company (BAIC) scheme, citing concerns that some policyholders were not being given...

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.

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.

The City of London police are conducting an investigation into allegations of fraud at Lloyd’s broker Besso Ltd after the company discovered irregularities in some client funds’ accounts, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Lloyd’s members’ agency CBS Private Capital has decided to restructure its new investment fund Insurance Capital Partners (ICP) after failing to excite sufficient investor interest. Launched with much fanfair this summer, Insurance Capital Partners...

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...

Fundraising total tops $3.5bn, with further moves imminent Although a fresh wave of (re)insurance start-ups is not expected to wash onto the shores of Bermuda, the island has once again led the way in capital raising, as the industry responds to...

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.

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...