October 2011/5

Parametric insurance will make it easier for public organisations to buy insurance against catastrophes, according to Cooper Gay's Latin America CEO Steve Jackson.

Lloyd's did its job adequately in assessing the plans of loss-making UK motor syndicates, according to director of performance management Tom Bolt

Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe suffered a bruising $1.35bn of catastrophe losses in 2011, resulting in a net loss of $502.6mn for the first nine months of the year.

The Insurance Insider met former Aon Global chairman and Aon Ltd CEO and chairman Dennis Mahoney earlier in the month and found the retired executive buzzing with enthusiasm from a keynote speech he had just made in London.

Mark Errington has become the latest partner to defect from London-headquartered law firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) on the eve of its effective takeover by Clyde & Co.

A UK court has ruled that insureds are not restricted to using an insurer's panel solicitor and are entitled to be covered for all "reasonable" legal costs endured, even if they exceed the rate stated in their policy.

US trade bodies have urged the two groups of states that have initiated separate schemes on sharing premium taxes for surplus lines policies to compromise.

Bermuda's regulatory scheme for managing larger (re)insurers is broadly equivalent to Europe's forthcoming Solvency II regime, according to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa).

Traditional reinsurers are failing to offer capacity efficiently and the trend for them to outsource peak risk to capital market providers is likely to continue, Nephila Capital co-founder Frank Majors said at the Baden Baden conference last week.

A US subsidiary of Prudential Financial has closed a $2bn letter of credit deal with a number of banks in the largest life securitisation since the 2008 financial crisis.

Swiss Re is seeking to raise $50mn from a new rated Successor cat bond issue covering US hurricane and European wind risk, as well as from an unrated tranche of notes exposed only to US hurricane perils.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors do not expect the earthquake that struck eastern Turkey on 23 October to threaten the EUR50mn Ianus Capital bond.