September 2006/3

Rating agency AM Best has affirmed its financial strength rating of B++ on Swiss reinsurer Converium and revised the outlook on the company to positive.

Reinsurance broker Benfield has predicted that the spate of recent regulations issued by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission covering issues including minimum capital requirements and investment regulations will only serve to encourage competition i

New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has amended charges in the civil case against former American Insurance Group (AIG) CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.

Brit Insurance Holdings plc became the latest London market insurer to report a drop in profits due to the weak US dollar, as it revealed on 5 September its interim results.

Veteran London market underwriters Peter Cottrell and Niels Aaskov have launched Insure-London, a managing general agency focussing on marine-related and professional lines which will be supported by Brit Insurance, Insider Week can reveal.

It was a tale of two markets for reinsurance specialist Benfield Group with disappointing news on its new corporate risks division being more than matched by impressive earnings growth in its US division on the back of the capacity crunch for catastrophe

Heath Lambert Group has won the prestigious Sainsbury account from current incumbent Marsh Ltd, our sister publication The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

In the September edition of The Insurance Insider, we incorrectly say that Goldman Sachs & Co worked on the recent Tokio Marine cat bond, Fhu-Jin Ltd.

Electronic trading platform RI3K announced on 11 September the launch of its upgraded trading system “V3”.

“Class of 2005” reinsurer Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings announced on 7 September that it has entered the aviation reinsurance market.

In contrast to many of its Lloyd’s competitors, the Bermuda-headquartered Catlin Group received a currency boost from the weak dollar which contributed to record net income of $147.3mn for the first half of 2006.

Fitch Ratings said the response from the market to its new capital model Prism has been positive.