October 2009/1

Shares in Omega Insurance Holdings have dropped nearly 10 percent this morning after the (re)insurer announced the sudden departure of John Robinson, who has stepped down from his position as chief underwriting officer (CUO) with immediate effect.

Outgoing Chaucer Holdings CEO Ewen Gilmour is joining Hampden Agencies Limited as non-executive chairman at the start of next year, replacing Nigel Hanbury in the position.

After booking second quarter net profits, XL Capital has slipped into the red once again as its bottom line was hit by realised investment losses in Q3 and its top line showed further evidence of the franchise damage inflicted in 2008.

Bank of America is shutting down its loss-making Lloyd's syndicate at the end of the year, with the vehicle to be placed into run-off, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

RenaissanceRe generated a combined ratio of just 43.3 percent in the third quarter, as it benefitted from the unseasonably benign catastrophe loss climate.

The current environment of falling economic growth and less demand for (re)insurance products makes it "more or less impossible to increase prices," according to Lloyd's franchise performance director Rolf Tolle.

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg’s CV Starr & Co has denied aggressively poaching dissatisfied American International Group (AIG) employees.

Private equity-backed insurer Torus is experiencing rapid growth in its casualty profile and is expected to post a modest pre-tax profit for 2009.

Three former Marsh excess casualty executives were cleared yesterday (26 October) of bid-rigging.

Willis is in exclusive talks with private equity firm Astorg Partners to sell down its stake in the French broker Gras Savoye and avoid the potential obligation to buy out minority shareholders next year for hundreds of millions of dollars.

After a lengthy impasse, Russian-backed private equity firm Pamplona Capital Management has finally upped its shareholding in Lloyd’s insurer Chaucer to 16.27 percent.

Willis CFO and COO Patrick Regan has announced plans to leave the insurance broker to join the world’s fifth largest insurance group, Aviva, as CFO.