September 2009/3

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has highlighted a trend of "significant weaknesses" in due diligence and monitoring of third-party relationships and payments across the commercial insurance broker industry.

The Lloyd's second syndicate capacity auction took place last week, with average prices up once again on last year.

Bermuda is set to lose another major broker, with the news that the Willis board has decided to change the domicile of its group holding company from Bermuda to Ireland.

The IPC property catastrophe book is to be re-underwritten, but its new owner Validus Holdings wants to take on the "vast majority" of the business it has acquired, according to Conan Ward, CEO of Validus Re.

As US regulatory authorities confirm discussions to "level the playing field" over contingent commissions, it has been estimated that MMC could earn more than $250mn a year if the controversial arrangements are allowed to return.

Liberty Syndicates is one of the insurers exposed to the Willis errors and omissions (E&O) insurance relating to multi-million dollar settlements for the infamous London PA reinsurance spiral of the mid-to-late 1990s, The Insurance Insider has learned.

The $130mn settlement that Willis Group made with CNA on the 11 September effectively ends another chapter in the internecine conflict...

The latest version of changes proposed by US insurance regulators' club the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) are set to be voted upon at the association's fall meeting this week [24 September].

The Hartford Financial Services Group has hired former American International Group (AIG) senior executive Stephen Whelan to replenish its recently raided financial products division, along with 18 other new appointments, The Insurance Insider has learned

Nick Jones, the former head of Heritage’s worldwide property division and lead underwriter of the (re)insurer's Lloyd's Syndicate 1200, is to rejoin the Lloyd's market as the active underwriter of a new Syndicate 1969, The Insurance Insider has learned

Run-off (re)insurer Alea Group has amalgamated its European and Bermudian subsidiaries and redomiciled Alea Europe from Switzerland into Bermuda.

Ratings agency Fitch has changed its outlook on Novae Group's UK FSA-authorised insurance subsidiary, Novae Insurance Company Ltd (NICL), from stable to negative.