October 2009/4

As the US non-life industry gathers in Florida for the annual PCI conference, one of the unexpected topics was Markel Corp announcement that the group's president and COO Paul Springman had taken an unexplained leave of absence.

London-based Venture capitalist partnership Alpine Risk Services has provided funding to drive the future expansion plans of the UK transactional consultancy and development firm Wildnet.

Xchanging opens US headquarters; RFIB announces divisional restructure; Towergate acquires Hull-based broker; QBE secures rugby sponsorship deal; Moody’s upgrades Markel Syndicate 3000...

The well-managed run-off of the Illinois-headquartered Kemper Insurance Cos inspired the US P&C legacy industry to acknowledge Barbara Murray as its Run-Off Person of the Year.

Aon Benfield has moved to strengthen its Benelux division with the appointment of Hans Groot as COO, while adding two new members to its analytics team in the region.

Expansive independent (re)insurance broker Cooper Gay has acquired the majority shareholding in Florida-based reinsurance broker, Reinsurance.com.ar LLC.

Willis CFO and COO Patrick Regan is leaving the insurance broker to join the world's fifth largest insurance group, Aviva, as CFO.

A new draft of a bill on regulating credit rating agencies is set to be lodged in the US House of Representatives with key language dropped, according to reports.

The World Bank is launching a catastrophe bond issuance platform to give governments and other public entities access to international capital markets for natural catastrophe insurance.

A global coalition of insurers has called on developed countries to agree to a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 at the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

AIG's challenge of retaining its key management may have got tougher last week, after the Obama administration's pay tsar Kenneth Feinberg imposed brutal cuts on the salaries of its most senior executives.

In the latest chapter of the bid-rigging saga that has haunted Marsh since 2004, the broking giant and American International Group (AIG) have been served with a lawsuit by US commodity producer and distributor Seaboard Corp.