October 2012/4

Ace Ltd has made its second significant Mexican acquisition in little over a month by agreeing to purchase Mexican personal lines insurer ABA Seguros from Ally Financial for approximately $865mn in cash, the company announced.

Former Ascot CEO Martin Reith has withdrawn from the corporate process around Antares, leaving Dane Douetil and ANV as the last men standing, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

2016 is now a far more realistic and desirable new start date for the new Solvency II regime, said Carlos Montalvo, the executive director of European insurance supervisor the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa).

Michel Liès, the Luxembourgian who has led a resurgent Swiss Re since becoming group CEO in January 2012, has said reinsurers must accept volatility not only as a reality but as being at the very heart of the reinsurance offering.

The reinsurance industry's over-reliance on third-party vendor models to price catastrophe risk could create similar problems as those suffered by the asset-backed securities market during the financial crisis, warned Validus Re CEO Kean Driscoll.

London and international technology and services provider Xchanging has re-launched its insurance software business under the Xuber brand.

Aegis targets London short-tail marine market; Travelers $167mn boost; Follow the Hofmeister; RLI beats; Willis replaces; Zurich dips; Swiss Re new board members; Platinum sparkles; ING sell-off continues; AGCS hire; RFIB complies; Torus move; Price move; Brown & Brown retreats; Quinn avoids; BB&T flat; Systemically important; Meadowbrook profits warning; EMC crop losses offset by lower cats; Rethinking equities

The dislocations created by a string of large catastrophe losses and the ongoing uncertainty around the euro's sustainability may increase reinsurance demand, according to AM Best.

Hannover Re will launch a new insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund called Leine Investment next year that will be open to third-party investors, sister title Trading Risk has revealed.

The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) is set to pay 5 percent more for its reinsurance programme when it renews at 1 November in an encouraging development for underwriters, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

In a recent roundtable hosted by this publication, a senior executive candidly revealed that in the late 1990s a certain major international specialist insurance market commissioned a study looking at its competitive position in its core US specialty lines arena.

Generali is undergoing a major overhaul of its reinsurance buying strategy that is likely to see a significant reduction in premiums ceded to reinsurers in 2013.