October 2007/2

Insurance specialists Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP (EAPD) and London-based Kendall Freeman have confirmed plans to merge the two law firms today (30 October), as predicted by The Insurance Insider last week.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter is developing five different trading indices with the first European index looking to go live as early as six months time.

Cullum Capital Ventures (CCV), part of the Towergate group, has recruited two teams from troubled property services group Erinaceous.

“Class of 2005” insurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd said the third quarter had been its “best yet” with net income of $105.2mn up 100 percent from $52.6mn in the prior-year period.

Bermudian-headquartered (re)insurer, AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd, has reported a 19 percent increase in operating income for the third quarter of 2007, capping eight straight quarters of "record profitability", according to its president and CEO...

Munich Re has bought the Lloyd’s insurer Beaufort Underwriting Agency Ltd through the acquisition of its parent company MSP Underwriting Ltd.

Deccan Value Advisors LP, the hedge fund which specialises in buying firms that look under-priced, has continued to build its stake in the UK quoted reinsurance intermediary, Benfield Group.

The threat of "economic populism" is one of the greatest challenges facing the US insurance industry, according to Property Casualty Insurers Association of America's (PCI) president and CEO David Sampson.

Insurance specialists Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP (EAPD) and London-based Kendall Freeman are understood to be close to reaching a merger deal, sources suggest.

HSBC Insurance has launched a Dublin-based reinsurer to accept risks from the parent company’s banking customers.

Giant reinsurer Swiss Re has signed an agreement to acquire some of Resolution plc’s life books from Standard Life plc for £2.35bn as it continues to build its Admin Re business.

The southern California wildfires, which have been raging across the region since 21 October, look set to cost (re)insurers between $900mn and $1.6bn in insured losses, according to the latest estimates from catastrophe modelling firm Risk Management Solu