October 2009/3

Bermudian domiciled (re)insurer Axis Capital says it expects its third-quarter operating income to be impacted by an increase of approximately $136mn in the fair value liability of an indemnity derivative contract that is exposed to longevity risk.

Munich Re's recent decision to reinstitute its share buyback programme to the tune of EUR1bn in "unneeded" capital could act as a catalyst for further returns...

Overseas and emerging markets are forecast to continue to be important areas of growth for European (re)insurers in the coming years...

Rating agency AM Best painted a lacklustre picture of the European non-life sector in 2010...

The total liabilities of the UK non-life run-off market increased by approximately 30 percent to an estimated £37.4bn at the end of 2008...

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

Despite a moderate uptick in the number of securities lawsuits filed in the third quarter, the number of new suits related to the credit crisis fell sharply...

As the first of the Q3 financials begin to trickle through this week led by Platinum Underwriters on Wednesday, the expectation is for bumper profits from property casualty (re)insurers...

Texas-based Southwest Insurance Partners Inc (SWIP) has completed a $20mn capital raise increasing its overall capitalisation to more than $115mn, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Tokio Millennium Re (TMR) is set to become the latest specialist Bermudian catastrophe reinsurer to diversify into new business lines at the 1.1 renewals, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Italian insurance giant Generali's buy out of the 49.6 percent minority shareholding in its Alleanza Italian life insurance unit should produce tax savings of EUR40mn a year...

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) annual conference to be held this week (21-24 October) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be taking ‘Insurance as a means of socioeconomic development’ as one of its key themes...

Hardy Underwriting Bermuda Limited has launched a reinsurance joint venture based in Bahrain in equal partnership with Arab Insurance Group (Arig).

The community of former UK-domiciled specialty insurance operations now headquartered overseas face years of meticulous close scrutiny of their business affairs by UK tax authorities...

Willis Group's reinsurance arm unveiled a series of management changes and a new organisational structure last week.

Last week, it was five years ago that the then New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer unleashed his snarling pit bull on the US P&C industry with his notorious bid-rigging/steering charges against MMC.

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) clarification of its approach to vetting senior appointments for regulated companies represents a considerable expansion of its powers...

If the most effective way to tackle conflicts of interest is full and unvarnished disclosure then this appears to finally be the consensus among senior state insurance officials...

Despite reined in optimism over underwriting conditions next year, a quartet of new Lloyd's syndicates are set to join Nick Jones' Apollo Syndicate 1969 in time for 1/1 launch 2010 launch.

Broker Willis Group has appointed former GCFac's Latin American operations, Hugh Powell, as CEO of Willis Facultative in Latin America...

Rating agency Moody's has withdrawn the debt ratings on Flatiron Re after its loans were repaid in full earlier this year...

State-backed Brazilian bank Banco do Brasil (BB) has announced it is in preliminary discussions with the Brazilian ministry of finance and the Brazilian federal government to allow it to buy a stake in IRB–Brasil Re (IRB).

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has highlighted concerns over life settlement securitisations (LSS).

Matthew Elderfield, the current CEO of the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), is to step down at the end of the year to take up the post of director of financial regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland.