October 2009/2

Ratings agency Fitch revised its outlook on PartnerRe to negative from stable last week, after the Bermudian acquired an 83 percent stake in Paris Re earlier in the month.

The US run-off industry once again prepares for its annual migration to New Jersey as the fifth Association of Insurance and Reinsurance Run-Off Companies (AIRROC) event begins on the 19 October.

American International Group (AIG) is close to announcing the sale of its Taiwanese life assurance unit, according to reports, in what would be the largest deal to date in its asset shedding exercise to repay the US taxpayer.

At a lunch in the City last week, members of The Insurance Insider London One Hundred were treated to a devastating critique by a top UK financier of the parlous state of the UK government's finances.

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

Estimated insured losses from Typhoon Melor for onshore properties in Japan range from $850mn to $1.5bn, according to risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.

Efforts to sell the non-life reinsurance portfolio of Berlin-based run-off group BF Rückversicherung have been revitalised.

Asbestos-related mesothelioma claims are expected to peak in 2016, with claimants exposed to asbestos between the late 1960s and mid 1970s from a wider industrial base than previously assumed, according to a Marsh study.

HM Treasury has banned UK financial services companies from doing business with two Iranian companies, in a move that could see Lloyd's and London market (re)insurers pull cover.

The trend of London market insurers fundraising through equity issuance looks set to continue, with the equity markets persisting as the "predominant source of new capital", according to the latest forecast from banking group Lloyds TSB.

A US district judge has ruled that Allen Stanford and other executives at the centre of charges relating to an alleged $7bn fraud may seek to tap into defence costs through a directors' and officers' (D&O) policy at Lloyd's.

The benign winds that characterised this year’s North Atlantic hurricane season could prove a double-edged sword.