October 2009/1

Hong Kong-based investment company Primus Financial Holdings headed the consortium that won the battle to acquire AIG's Taiwanese life insurance unit, Nan Shan, for $2.15bn.

Achieving $3-4bn total ILS issuance for 2009 will be "quite a stretch" but "attainable", as a number of trends converge to boost interest in cat bonds in the fourth quarter, according to reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter (GC) and its capital markets arm GC

AJ Gallagher's London operation confirmed it has hired the trade credit team that defected from former HCC-owned broker Rattner Mackenzie before the entity was sold to Guy Carpenter - a move first revealed by The Insurance Insider.

North American commercial property and casualty insurance renewals are still at "deeply depressed rates", according to the latest Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Benchmark Survey of Q3 activity.

Typhoon Melor has caused substantial disruption to a number of companies in Japan, after making landfall on 8 October near the city of Nagoya, with winds of 139 kph (86 mph).

Verisk Analytics - the holding company for the family of risk analysis and assessment firms that includes ISO and modelling firm AIR Worldwide - has staged a successful initial public offering (IPO) of shares.

Shelbourne CEO steps down; LMA and Xchanging agree to simplify premium settlement; Matanle 'FSA approved'...

Four ex-General Re executives have reached settlements in the civil action over a sham finite reinsurance transaction involving the Berkshire Hathaway-owned reinsurer and American International Group (AIG).

A group of Mexican investors who claim they lost their life savings through disgraced Stanford International Bank (SIB) have taken action against six Lloyd’s syndicates, alleging that SIB's Bankers Blanket Bond (BBB) policy covers their $6mn loss.

Amid almost 50 separate US proceedings and dozens of international cases, Allen Stanford's UK and US legal teams are entrenched in an ever deepening dispute over accessing defence funds...

Our monthly column keeping a check on recent US and EU legislative and regulatory developments, in association with Sidley Austin LLP.

Former Swiss Re trader Al Selius has joined London-based Securis Investment Partners to start a New York office for the firm.