September 2005/5

Giant insurer American International Group (AIG) has taken legal action in an effort to seize $20bn of its own shares from the control of ousted former chief executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, according to reports today in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has lowered its outlook on the reinsurance industry to negative from stable, suggesting that company downgrades will outnumber upgrades for the remainder of the year.

JLT Re, the reinsurance arm of Jardine Lloyd Thompson, is continuing to build following the decision to separate it from the brokers other businesses and grow beyond its presence in marine and aviation.

Hurricane Rita, the category three storm that made landfall on the Louisiana/Texas border with 120mph winds on 24 September, appears to have spared offshore oil platforms and onshore refineries the worst of its wrath, if latest industry reports...

Hurricane Rita, the latest addition to an already overactive US storm season, proved to have packed less of a punch than expected over the weekend with major cities and infrastructure spared significant damage, according to the most recent reports.

A good set of first-half year results for Hardy Underwriting Group was boosted by IFRS accounting rules which improved income by £1mn. The insurer released its interim results for the six months up to 30 June 2005 on 22 September and saw...

It was a bittersweet week for MMC in its negotiations with US regulators to settle the investigations and allegations into the firm’s past business practices. On the one hand, the broking giant entered into an agreement with the National Association...

One month ago it looked like overall capacity would be down at Lloyd’s next year, now with the market changed by Hurricane Katrina the reverse could be true. Although total industry losses and individual insurer losses caused by Hurricane Katrina...

Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has added to fears over Advent Underwriting Ltd’s ability to weather its substantial Hurricane Katrina losses by placing its B (average) rating on the company’s Syndicate 780 on review for a possible downgrade.

Following the news that the first Hurricane Katrina lawsuit had been filed against insurers in the US (see Insider Week No. 191), law firms have begun to brief insurance clients in earnest over the challenges they will face in the likely deluge of...

Risk modelling experts Eqecat released estimates of between $11-19bn for the offshore energy and commercial flood damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Although the estimates are outside of Eqecat’s usual scope, the company said it was responding to...

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has confirmed that its ratings and outlook on legal expenses insurance underwriter DAS remain unchanged. This follows the suspension of members of DAS’s senior management team, after it emerged they were...