October 2014/1

Valuations on a price-to-book basis have fallen by 6 percent for the companies in The Insider 30 in the year to date, as sentiment on the sector has turned negative following 2013's stellar share price performance

Enstar operating subsidiary Torus has hired four senior underwriters from Zurich's construction team as it continues to rebuild following a number of defections earlier in the year, The Insurance Insider can reveal

A relative bright spot as passenger reserve set far lower than feared

Air India changed the leader of its war policy from Ace to XL as it fought to secure a favourable deal amid an extremely hard post-loss rating environment, sister title Inside FAC has revealed

The combined reserves for Air Algérie flight AH5017 and TransAsia Airways flight GE222 amount to $160mn, The Insurance Insider can reveal

Air France has successfully renewed its mammoth all-risk insurance programme on expiring terms as signs emerged that rate increases in the loss-struck airline market will fall short of initial expectations

2014 auctions nowhere near as oversubscribed as a year ago

Weekly share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

Legacy insurer Armour Group took the "unlimited" layer of the $390mn comprehensive reinsurance deal purchased by QBE to remove the reserving risk from its Italian and Spanish medical malpractice books

P&C (re)insurance stocks fell back into negative territory in September as our index of listed carriers - The Insider 30 - contracted by 0.96 percent during the month.

Florida regulators have approved Homeowners Choice P&C Insurance Company (HCI) to take 37,500 wind-only policies out of state-backed insurer Citizens, in a move likely to see it significantly increase its reinsurance cover next year

The former CEO and president of Aon Risk Solutions in Puerto Rico has sued for age discrimination after he was allegedly "sidelined" in favour of a "significantly younger" replacement.

Fourteen staff have left CNA subsidiary Hardy Underwriting to join Lloyd's rival Ark Syndicate Management, The Insurance Insider revealed earlier this month

Lloyd's has announced the "third and final" phase of its Claims Transformation Programme (CTP), which will expand the project to include the market's legacy subscription claims.

Starr lines up crisis grandees for cross-examination

Placing Platform Ltd (PPL), the body tasked with commissioning an electronic placing platform for the London market, has estimated a 2017 date for full implementation

Sullivan chairs; Markel promotes; Singapore sling; Yip joins; Canopius confirms; Charles Taylor adds; Déjà vu...

Insurers should continue to analyse the effects of the UK government's decision to deduct legal costs from damages paid to mesothelioma victims despite the High Court ruling the practice unlawful, law firm DWF has said.

The aviation war risk insurance programme provided by US government agency the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been extended to 11 December 2014

The UK's state-backed flood reinsurer Flood Re is due to disclose which firm has won the mandate to be its managing agent by the end of October, according to UK trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI)

Stone Ridge Asset Management allocated $30mn to Bermudian retro writer Aeolus and another $30mn to Everest Re's Mt Logan Re sidecar ahead of the mid-year renewals, according to the latest quarterly reports from the US fund manager.

A dispute over a $100mn cat bond payout to US insurer American Family Mutual Insurance for 2011 tornado losses was dismissed by a New York district court late last month

The International Group (IG) of protection and indemnity (P&I) clubs needs to communicate more effectively with the marine market in the wake of the Costa Concordia loss, the group's chairman Grantley Berkeley has said

Dislocation in the middle market lending sector is leading to significant interest in the asset class from (re)insurers

The only silver lining to today's market is that dumb capital's days are numbered

The full $7bn of aggregate on offer in the Gulf of Mexico windstorm market was sold over the renewal season, with pricing down by around 10 percent year-on-year, according to the Lloyd & Partners (L&P) October Energy and Marine report

The majority of programmes in the power sector have renewed, with rates appearing to have fallen by 5 to 10 percent on average, according to Lloyd & Partners (L&P)

Liberty Mutual is rationalising its outwards reinsurance for specialty and international business in a move that could withdraw another significant chunk of premium from the open market, The Insurance Insider can reveal

Despite improved US harvest conditions in 2014 for key commodities including corn, soybeans and wheat - with yields up 5-10 percent year-on-year - the resulting slide in prices means that underwriters of multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) face the prospect of another challenging year for results.

A benign period for catastrophe losses is expected to deliver strong third quarter profits and solid book value growth for US-listed P&C (re)insurers

Lancashire founder Richard Brindle is in the early stages of work on a start-up that will see him return to the (re)insurance market next year, The Insurance Insider can reveal