September 2010/3

Lloyd's has announced it is to set up a dedicated programme to recruit and train 50 claims professionals over the next five years; a figure amounting to 10 per cent of claims personnel currently employed in the market.

Shareholders at consulting giant Hewitt Associates voted in favour of the merger with insurance intermediary Aon, pushing the deal one step further to completion

Kiln sets up marine operation in Germany; Litmus sees strong demand...

John Edwards exits Aon Benfield; New chairman for Lexicon; Ramage joins Whittington...

Five years after it purchased life run-off provider LCL, Charles Taylor Consulting (CTC) has finally tied up the loose ends up by issuing £400,000 of stock to the vendors.

UK-quoted legacy acquisition firm Randall & Quilter (R&Q) has bought Guy Carpenter's US/UK run-off businesses Resolution Solutions (RSL).

Liberty Mutual is looking to raise up to $1.41bn to repay debt by floating its agency business in New York - in what would be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the US so far this year.

Ace reported a $1.1bn acquisition of US crop insurer Rain and Hail Insurance Service and a separate $200mn deal to buy Malaysian business Jerneh Insurance Berhad

First-half average net losses on underwriting in the private US property and casualty (P&C) sector deepened to $5.1bn from $2.1bn a year earlier on declining earned premiums, according to ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

The senior management of CV Starr's accident and health subsidiary are in negotiations with industry legend Hank Greenberg to buy themselves out of the parent holding company.

London-based specialist agency Sciemus claims its new analytical tool for assessing wind turbine risks will enable it to provide more accurate risk premium quotes to potential customers.

Five months after Marsh set Gibbs Hartley Cooper (GHC) up as its independent London market wholesale broker the search continues for a CEO, The Insurance Insider has learnt.

AmTrust Europe - the UK insurance company that rebranded from being IGI earlier this year - has unexpectedly parted company with its CEO Keith Wardell.

Former SVB CEO Rupert Villers has signalled his intention to step down as CEO of Aspen's insurance business after just nine months in the role, The Insurance Insider has learnt.

Quoted Lloyd's carrier Omega Insurance Holdings received a twin boost with the news that company chairman John Coldman has invested £1mn in the company while AM Best has lifted its negative watch

Lloyd's and international (re)insurer Hiscox plc is scaling back its US operations in the face of difficult market conditions by selling its bloodstock business and withdrawing from inland marine.

Scor is in the advanced stages of an application to launch a Lloyd's syndicate for a 2011 start, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

£69mn of capacity was traded at the second round of the Lloyd's 2010 syndicate auction.

Lloyd's underwriting profits will be thin on the ground for the first half of the year - but this has done little to deter the queue of potential arrivals at the 300-year-old market.

Aon Benfield's facultative electronic trading portal FAConnect has been integrated with the Lloyd's Exchange, allowing users to transmit messages directly to syndicates.

Malcolm Payton, head of global property facultative reinsurance at JLT Re, is joining GCFac, although details of his new role are yet to emerge.

Chartis leads the Jardine Lloyd Thompson-placed cover for the ATR-42 turboprop that crashed in Venezuela last week, The Insurance Insider understands.

The US energy casualty market is facing maximum insured losses of up to $1bn from a gas pipeline explosion earlier this month in a neighbourhood near San Francisco.

Cat bond investors are lining up to buy the first pure European wind bond of the season - French insurer Groupama's EUR100mn Green Valley II offer.

French reinsurer Scor has seeded a dedicated insurance-linked investment fund, Atropos, with $100mn of capital and hopes to start raising third party capital from October, reports The Insurance Insider's sister publication Trading Risk.

Expansive US reinsurance broker TigerRisk is "looking at various options" in London as it seeks to grow its business there, according to co-founder and industry veteran Rod Fox.

The Global Reinsurance Forum (GRF), formed in September 2009 as the trade body for the world's largest reinsurers, has claimed some early successes as it celebrated its first anniversary at last week's Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous.

One recent tradition at Monte Carlo is the convoy of investors and equity analysts that join underwriters and brokers for Rendez-Vous week.

In their pre-Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous "state of the markets" reports, Guy Carpenter and Aon Benfield agreed that most rates look set to continue falling in 2011.

The reinsurance industry's resilience in weathering the financial crisis has produced a glut of capacity, all four major ratings agencies have warned.

The relatively quiet week following the exertions of the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous is usually an excellent time to reflect on the state of the market.

Fairfax Financial Holdings has agreed to pay $209mn for a 39.2 percent stake in Kuwait-headquartered carrier Gulf Insurance.

AM Best has warned that if the US property and casualty (P&C) industry continues reserve releases into 2011 it will pose a danger to underlying reserve adequacy.

Two very different insurance investors gave pronouncements on the general economic outlook last week - with one markedly bullish and the other bearish on the prospects of a sustained recovery.

Ambitious new proposals to boost oil rig capacity were one of the main talking points from this year's Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous

Hurricane Karl regained strength last week as it passed over Mexico for the second time and became the fifth major hurricane of the 2010 season.