September 2010/4

Willis North America chairman and CEO Don Bailey has resigned and will join personal lines giant Allstate, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Canadian investment giant Fairfax Financial Holdings has embarked on a buyback programme of up to 1.6mn of its voting shares -which could cost it around $660mn at current stock prices and represents nearly 10 percent of the firm's publicly traded float.

Willis promotes Latin American leader; Lloyd's Talley promoted; New XBS MD...

UK-based legacy group Global Reinsurance Consultants has launched a legacy broking service targeting London market business.

Half-year profits at run-off and insurance services company Tawa have declined by around 40 percent to $1.4mn from last year.

US Fire Insurance Co has settled its case with the World Trade Center (WTC) site owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It is the last insurer to settle in the consolidated litigation brought by a group of insurance companies against the Port Authority in 2005.

BP has accused Lloyd's excess insurers of using delaying tactics in their attempt to transfer a Texas lawsuit involving $750mn worth of coverage for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to New Orleans.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is considering rule changes as part of a crackdown on media leaks of inside information, saying that firms may not be doing enough to encourage a "suitable anti-leaking culture".

The European parliament last week (22 September) voted overwhelmingly for a new European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) financial package that allows cross-border supervision.

The body set up to scrutinise theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last week raised questions about AIG's ability to repay all of the $128bn it has received in US government aid.

Free market lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council has echoed European opposition to Neal Bill proposals to increase taxes for foreign-affiliated reinsurers in the US.

UK regulator the Financial Services Authority has signalled its intent to step up cross-border cooperation by concluding an agreement with the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra).