October 2008/3

Lloyd’s insurer RJ Kiln & Co Ltd has confirmed Lloyd Tunnicliffe as active underwriter on its Syndicate 807.

London managing general agency (MGA) Synergy Insurance Services has entered the high net worth (HNW) market with a product it says could cut premium layout for clients by up to 40 percent.

Leading global reinsurer Swiss Re has partnered with the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) to develop a weather derivatives contract to hedge against loss of maize crops as a result of drought in Malawi.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) agreed to adopt six supervisory papers on the key issue of solvency assessment at its annual conference 2008 in Budapest last week.

Analysts at ratings agency Fitch downgraded their rating outlook for the combined insurance and reinsurance sectors from stable to negative on Friday (17 October).

The soon-to-be giant broking combine Aon Benfield Re has finalised the management structure for its analytics team, as it emerged last week that Benfield shareholders had voted 99.8 percent in favour of the union with Aon.

Ascot Underwriting founder Martin Reith has stepped down as its CEO just months after agreeing a deal with American International Group (AIG) for the Lloyd’s insurer to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the troubled US giant.

Banking and insurance company ING Group NV has become the latest in a string of financial groups to acquire state aid in the form of substantial bail-outs, receiving a EUR10bn investment from the Dutch government.

UK life insurer Prudential has emerged as a potential bidder for some of AIG’s Asian Life units, according to reports. The reports said that the UK firm is understood to be willing to issue new shares to the value of £1.3bn...

The financial community is awaiting with some trepidation tomorrow’s (21 October) key settlement date for the $361bn of credit default swaps (CDS) in default after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last month.

Speaking during a panel discussion at rating agency AM Best’s third annual European insurance ratings conference, Tony Brooke-Taylor of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said that many internal capital management models (ICM) do not capture the full

Specialist Lloyd’s insurer Jubilee Managing Agency has confirmed its appointment of Andreas Loucaides a director of underwriting, a move first revealed in June by The Insurance Insider.