October 2007/1

Run-off insurer Alea Group Holdings has received a one-time payment of $203.6mn to "fully and finally" commute all exposures with its Bermudian neighbour Max Capital.

The recent credit crunch is unlikely to dampen insurance linked securities (ILS) investor appetite, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P), as it highlighted increased trading in the secondary market for cat bonds.

The debate last week over whether to end the "unfair advantage" enjoyed by Bermudians using US affiliates over American-domiciled rivals ended in a "stalemate", according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.

The European Commission (EC) may call for an end to the practice of contingent commissions in its long-awaited final report into business insurance.

Catlin Group Ltd has welcomed AM Best's upgrade of the outlook on the London-listed (re)insurer's A rating from negative to stable.

Benfield Group's share price continued to climb today (1 October) with news that another US hedge fund has built its stake in the independent reinsurance specialist.

The bitter dispute between the former heads of Guy Carpenter's facultative (Fac) business and the company they worked for has reached an out of court settlement at the eleventh hour allowing them to join rival broker Integro Ltd.

Colemont Global Group, the international arm of US wholesaler Colemont Corporation, announced the acquisition of a majority share in a leading Brazilian aviation broker last week.

Former HIH director Dominic Fodera, who is serving a two-year jail term for issuing misleading financial statements, has pleaded guilty to a further criminal charge relating to the collapse of the failed (re)insurer.

A class action bid-rigging suit against a number of commercial insurers and brokers has failed to show the industry players were guilty of fraud under federal racketeering statutes or that they violated federal anti-trust laws...

Consistent profitability and predicted favourable returns have prompted rating agency Moody's to upgrade QBE's non-marine liability Limit Syndicate 386 from A- (good) to A (very good).

Lloyd's interim results reflected the strong performance of insurers underwriting in the marketplace as well as warnings of widely softening market conditions.