October 2008/2

Aon Ltd, the UK operation of the Chicago-based global broking giant, has agreed a deal to buy niche trade broker Supercover Holdings Ltd, as it continues to snap up specialist firms to boost distribution.

Bermudian-headquartered run-off specialist Enstar Group Ltd has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Royston Run-Off Ltd, has won the race to buy Unionamerica Holdings Ltd, the discontinued UK-based operations of Travelers for $343.4mn.

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.

Speakers at the Isle of Man Captive Conference last week (10 October) expressed cautious optimism about the future of captives in the face of the current financial turmoil.

Shares in Swiss Re and XL Capital rebounded today after a week when the legacy of expansion out of traditional (re)insurance into areas worst impacted by the credit crisis decimated shareholdings in the companies.

The global stock market crash has caused Yamato Life insurance, Japan's nearly century old insurer, to file for bankruptcy last week with Yen 269.5bn ($2.7bn) of liabilities.

A fundamental disagreement over the issue of mandatory commission disclosure lies at the heart of last week's decision by the London Market Insurance Brokers' Committee (LMBC) to break away from the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) and form a

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.

A financial report from Atlas partners LLP has alluded to factors that point to the end of the soft 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.

The latest reported Hurricane Ike loss estimates have revealed continued industry pessimism about the eventual bill to be paid from the September storms.

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.