October 2008/1

Swiss Re has partnered with on-line weather derivatives platform CelsiusPro Ltd to underwrite European weather derivatives.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded four cat bonds guaranteed by failed investment bank Lehman Brothers in September, signalling further contagion of the financial sector crisis in the insurance linked securities (ILS) market.

The annual migration of the US legacy business to the fringes of New York occurs this month with the melt-down in the financial markets and the implications for (re)insurers the inevitable main topics of conversation.

The legacy sector is eagerly awaiting news on Travelers’ decision over the sale of its UK-based long-tail run-off business, Unionamerica Insurance Company, which attracted a frenzy of potential buying interest over the summer.

Tawa plc’s share price is now 40 percent lower than its 2007 IPO price as investors responded badly to the firm’s profit slump last month on the back of continuing losses from the bond portfolio of its CX Re subsidiary...

Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox Ltd has come to an agreement with members’ agents over plans to launch a new syndicate backed 100 percent by its own capital to transfer business currently underwritten on its Names-backed Syndicate 33.

The total volume of capacity traded in Lloyd’s auctions ahead of the 2009 year was the lowest since the process was introduced in 1995, according to members’ agent Argenta Private Capital.

As individual net loss estimates continue to trickle in from (re)insurers for exposures to hurricanes Gustav and Ike it appears that property cat specialists Renaissance Re and Bermudian class of 2001 player Montpelier Re have...

Aon Benfield Re’s investment banking arm – an amalgamation of Benfield Advisory and Aon Capital markets – will be led by Rob Bredahl, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Newline Syndicate 1218 active underwriter, Stephen Gordon, has left the Lloyd’s insurer to join expansive US-based property casualty insurer AMTrust, according to sources.

Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd is set to become the latest Bermudian to establish a Lime Street presence with the acquisition of a Lloyd’s platform, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Industry Loss Warranty (ILW) prices spiked during the early part of the US hurricane season on the back of large orders in the market from beleaguered (re)insurer XL Capital Ltd.