October 2005/5

(Re)insurer Heath Lambert announced the addition of two new directors to its reinsurance business on Friday 21 October. Both Roland Vella and Chris Underwood are joining Heath Lambert from Lloyd’s broker Thompson Heath & Bond.

Bermudian reinsurer ACE appointed Bill O’Farrell as chief reinsurance officer for the group on 18 October. O’Farrell, who is a senior vice-president in Reinsurance Recoverables with ACE, will design and buy reinsurance and take overall responsibility..

The London Market is missing out on millions of pounds in savings because of its failure to embrace new technology that would speed up business processes. At the ACORD Forum on 20 October, London was described as resistant to change and slow to act...

Property rates have increased by as much as 20 percent in the aftermath of this year’s devastating hurricanes according to a survey conducted by Advisen. The RIMS Benchmark Survey showed that third-quarter renewal prices were dropping before Katrina...

Despite the depredations of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, the US property/casualty sector appears to be in rude health – at least for the time being, if the latest industry report from ratings agency AM Best is to be believed. In its report...

Willis Corp is being sued by the owner of the Millennium Hilton in Manhattan, New York for alleged negligence in securing business interruption cover for the hotel group. Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc, the owner of the Millennium Hilton, has...

If any of Renaissance Re’s management were forced out of the reinsurer because of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) investigations into the firm, it would probably lead to a downgrade warned rating agency Moody’s last week.

A new report has found that regulatory probes are placing the boards of (re)insurers under increasing pressure over a range of issues. The report by Moody’s Investor Service highlighted finite risks, mutual funds and potential conflicts of interest...

The black boxes have been recovered from the site of Saturday (22 October) night’s plane crash in Nigeria. The Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 crashed minutes after take-off in Lagos on its way to the Nigerian capital Abuja killing all 117 crew and...

Insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG) appointed the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief accountant Michael Sutton to its board of directors last week. Sutton, who served as chief accountant at the SEC from...

Former American International Group (AIG) chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, is countersuing his former company through Starr International Company (SICO) in a growing dispute over control of a 12 percent stake in AIG worth nearly $20bn.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) gave a stark warning against using CAT models with insufficient data as it announced it is to launch a review of the models place in risk management systems. Speaking at the ACORD Forum in London last Thursday...