October 2008/3

Under fire US insurer American International Group (AIG) has been pressed to provide more detail on how it has used the money drawn down on its combined $123bn taxpayer bail-out funding so far.

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...

Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd has become the eighth Bermudian to secure a Lloyd’s platform since the start of 2007 with an agreement to buy Marlborough Underwriting Agency Ltd from Berkshire Hathaway.

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.

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.

XL Capital preannounced an estimated third quarter net loss of $1.65bn to $1.67bn that confirmed a $1.4bn charge in relation to its August transaction to close the majority of liabilities to former bond insurer affiliate Security Capital Assurance (SCA).

ACE Ltd has continued its efforts to grow in markets traditionally dominated by American International Group (AIG) by boosting its commercial D&O capability with a move to write the business at Lloyd’s.

The Insurance Insider London 100 (www.london-100.com ) meeting of 16 October heard an uncommonly positive outlook on the potential severity of the financial crisis from guest speaker Howard Wheeldon, London-based senior strategist of interdealer broker BG

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

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.

Everest Re, Catlin, Max Capital and Aspen joined a growing chorus of (re)insurers publishing preliminary Q3 results outlooks reflecting heavy investment writedowns – in addition to the impact of hurricane losses (see article 6).

Swiss Re and private equity firm CVC are in “advanced talks” to buy a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland’s up-for-sale insurance operations, according to reports.

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.

Amlin cut its 2008 profit forecast by £45mn after tax today as it become the latest (re)insurer to reveal the impact of Hurricane Ike with the bill from last month’s storm rising based on industry estimates in excess of those published by...

AM Best has downgraded Bermuda-based insurer XL Life reinsurance’s financial strength rating from A to A-, citing declining premium and capitalisation pressure as its parent, XL Capital Ltd winds down its business profile within life reinsurance.

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

Broking giant Aon Corporation has agreed a $154.7mn deal to sell off its auto unit AIS Management Group to Mercury Insurance Group, California’s third-largest personal automobile insurer.

Swiss (re)insurer Glacier Group has appointed Richard Etridge as CEO of its Leichtenstein headquartered insurance subsidiary.

Troubled global insurer AIG is facing a tough squeeze on its aviation and US directors’ and officers’ liability (D&O) books of business, according to senior market sources.

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.

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.

WR Berkley confirmed the hire of a financial institutions (FI) team from American International Group (AIG), as previously revealed by The Insurance Insider.

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.

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

Broker Aon expects hardening market conditions to be sustained through October, November and December renewals with a closing gap between rates charged by lead and following insurers on placements.

Arch Capital Group Ltd is close to launching a new Dublin-based reinsurer that will act as a hub for its European reinsurance operations, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

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.