October 2008/2

London and international broker HSBC Insurance Brokers Ltd. has opened a branch office and received regulatory approval from the QFC Authority to provide insurance broking services to corporate customers within Qatar.

A survey of senior level members of insurance brokerage firms carried out by market data provider Advisen suggests that most brokers are "very confident" or "somewhat confident" in AIG after the $85mn federal bail-out, and only a small percent are advisin

Janet Edey and Mathew Carr, two underwriters with 35 years experience in D&O between them, have been appointed as joint leaders of Novae's Syndicate 2007 management liability unit.

Start-up energy specialist insurer Torus Insurance Holdings Ltd has confirmed the appointment of Clive Tobin as the Group's CEO, effective 1 January 2009, as revealed by The Insurance Insider in June.

A US congressional committee criticised former AIG executives last week during a hearing to examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to the $85bn September bailout of the insurance giant.

A UK commercial court judge continued to weigh up issues of fraud definition and jurisdiction as both sides in the long-running dispute between Randall and Quilter (R&Q) affiliate Cavell USA and private equity-owned Seaton Insurance Co and Stonewall Insur

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

Embattled US insurer American International Group (AIG) has borrowed $70.3bn on loans from the US government in the three weeks since its initial $85bn bail-out, according to reports.

As the (re)insurance industry gears up to report Q3 financials, earnings are expected to be dominated by deteriorating investment performance and continued catastrophe losses, this time from US hurricanes.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson has announced that Warren Dann will join its Global Risk Solutions (GRS) division as sales leader on 16 October.

London and international broker Thompson, Heath & Bond has appointed John Goldsmith, former chairman of the London (re)insurance broker Dennis M. Clayton (now part of Towers Perrin), as non-executive director of the firm.

The notional value of the global weather derivatives market has tripled in three years to $32bn for 2007-8 and is expected to see 30 percent annual growth "for the next several years", according to a report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).