October 2007/6

The four-month trial of three former Independent Insurance Group plc (IIG) executives ended with a successful conviction for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and a total of 14 years in jail sentences last week.

Bermudian (re)insurer XL Capital dismissed rumours of significant sub-prime related losses in its financial and professional lines portfolio last week, stating that indeed the crisis provided "an attractive opportunity" for the class.

Stock in US (re)insurance giant, American International Group Inc (AIG) plummeted by nearly 10 percent in a day on Thursday (25 October), as worries about its exposure to the sub-prime mortgage market mounted.

Bank of Ireland Life has securitised EUR400mn of value-in-force (VIF) life insurance policies in the first rated European VIF transaction for almost three years, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P).

German insurance giant Allianz SE is expected to launch a new issue of European peril catastrophe bonds through a newly created vehicle, Blue Fin Ltd, Insider Week understands.

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.

Advent, the quoted EC3 reinsurer, has said it is exposed to a potential small loss from Lloyd's decision to invest in Mainsail II, the stricken structured investment vehicle (SIV).

Despite a drop in gross written premiums for the third quarter of 2007, US commercial lines insurer WR Berkley reported net income of $180mn or 93 cents per share, buoyed by a...

UK flood losses of $11.4mn during the third quarter failed to dampen Bermudian firm Montpelier Re's net income of $101.3mn, up from $83.4mn in the prior-year period.

It may have been another benign year for US hurricanes, but IPCRe's international book means it has inevitably taken a number of hefty non-US catastrophe losses, not least from the UK summer floods.

Early-reporting (re)insurers and brokers posted a healthy set of third quarter results last week, reflecting a quiet US catastrophe year to date and boosted by increased retention rates and reserve releases, according to William Wilt, analyst at Morgan St

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.