October 2015/3

Independent broker Besso Insurance Group has recorded an 11 percent increase in turnover to £32.3mn ($49.9mn) for the year ended 31 December 2014.

Lloyd's managing agents may enter into binding authority agreements of up to 36 months for the 2016 year of account, the Corporation has ruled.

Shane Doyle has left his role as CEO of Dual after two years to start an independent venture, the firm announced.

US insurers attempting to railroad reinsurers into paying aggregate claims under per-occurrence treaties are not fulfilling their cedant obligations and need to be resisted, Endurance CEO John Charman has told The Insurance Insider.

Ratings agency Fitch believes that while Baden-Baden negotiating stances might appear tougher this year, fierce competitive pressure means a pricing floor has yet to be reached.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has warned that US carriers may be forced to strengthen reserves for accident years in the "near future" as the reserving cycle threatens to turn.

Combined coverages and multi-year placements will "undoubtedly" continue as a buyer's market persists at the 1 January renewals, according to Guy Carpenter's CEO of Emea Nick Frankland.

The current wave of M&A activity is unlikely to end as reinsurers continue to seek scale and relevance to clients, an audience of over 500 senior executives heard at the Guy Carpenter 2015 Baden-Baden Reinsurance Symposium yesterday (18 October).

State-owned China Re is set to raise $2bn from investors after its Hong Kong IPO priced at the upper end of expectations, in a further show of the strong appetite for (re)insurance risk from Asian investors.

New York-listed insurer American Financial Group (AFG) has underlined its commitment to turning around the performance of its bottom-quartile Lloyd's business Marketform by bringing in Ascot founder Martin Reith as CEO.

The London & International Insurance Brokers' Association (Liiba) has said the £1mn it is planning to contribute towards funding a £250mn London market modernisation initiative is "entirely appropriate".

The London Market Group (LMG) has invited young professionals to be more involved in the Target Operating Model (Tom) modernisation programme and confirmed that it has dropped the idea of a slip levy to fund the process.