October 2007/5

The London market has missed its 60 percent third quarter target for usage of electronic claims files (ECF) by 15 percentage points, making the year-end target of 100 percent "more challenging", said the Market Reform Group (MRG) in a statement last week.

As predicted by The Insurance Insider in July, Liberty Syndicates - one of the largest Lloyd’s (re)insurers - has confirmed the appointment of Nick Metcalf as its new CEO.

Gen Re's victory last week in its dispute with Arch Capital Group over the poaching of a thirty strong facultative team will encourage employers concerned about their intellectual property walking out of the door.

New market entrants are "critical to maintaining the attractiveness of the Lloyd’s market", according to the Society's Franchise Performance director, Rolf Tolle.

UK (re)insurance giant Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) has announced that it is to acquire Canadian property casualty insurer Canadian Northern Shield Insurance Company (CNS), in a C$75mn (£37mn) cash deal.

French reinsurer SCOR has reaffirmed reporting lines and made a flurry of fresh appointments to its non-life and life segments.

Yorkshire-based consolidator Broker Network Group has received a takeover approach which "may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company", according to a recent London Stock Exchange announcement.

Munich Re's $1.3bn planned purchase of US primary insurer The Midland Company (Midland) met with caution from analysts last week.

Munich Re has launched a $260mn cat bond to cover earthquake risk for the East Japan Railway Company (EJRC) in a sign that insurance linked securities (ILS) demand remains undiminished by recent credit markets turmoil.

The third annual Rendez-Vous of the Association of Insurance and Reinsurance Run-Off Companies' (AIRROC) last week proved a perfect time to look back at how a number of recent transactions have benefited the sector.

Lehman Bros has been given the green light by the Financial Services Authority to begin trading at its subsidiary Libero Ventures Ltd - a new unit that aims to improve capital efficiency for (re)insurers by shifting exposures to the capital markets.

Guy Carpenter is likely to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit launched earlier this month by Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal that has accused the broker of violating the state’s anti-trust and unfair trade practices acts...