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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).
  • Legislation to extend the US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will go before President Obama to be signed into law after gaining approval on Capitol Hill last week.
  • The New York Insurance Department (NYID) says its proposals to create a new collateral framework for so-called alien reinsurers will help keep the state competitive and bring the US "into the 21st century of financial services regulation".
  • Risk modelling firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has launched a parametric industry loss index for Japanese typhoons, taking its Paradex line-up to cover the five largest insurance perils.
  • Pricing came in below guidance on the first European wind bond of the season, French insurer Groupama's EUR100mn Green Valley II, The Insurance Insider's sister publication Trading Risk reports.
  • Forecaster Weather Services International (WSI) has increased its predictions for major hurricanes in the 2010 season, after Julia and Karl surprised forecasters by developing into major storms earlier in the month.
  • The Commonwealth Games 2010's $200mn plus contingency risk cover is retained in local markets - placed with the Oriental Insurance Company and reinsurerd by General Insurance Company of India (GIC), The Insurance Insider can reveal.
  • Asian typhoon Fanapi may cause insurable damages of between $500mn and $1bn, according to modelling firm Eqecat
  • Hurricanes Igor and Karl whipped up as the most significant storms of the 2010 season to date, but neither took a toll on the insurance industry.
  • Mark Freitas, former president and chief operating officer at Frank Crystal & Company, has launched a broking start-up in the US called Mark Edward Partners.
  • Former Aon Ltd deputy chairman Jonathan Palmer-Brown is the frontrunner to succeed Andrew Agnew as chairman of Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT)'s London market specialty arm.
  • Centrix Insurance Holdings, the parent of London market and international broker Lonmar Global Risks, made losses of £3.2mn in 2009 as financing costs and foreign exchange (FX) losses collided with a softening market.
  • Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT)'s controversial push in the aviation sector is paying dividends, investors heard in a presentation last week.
  • US broker AmWins has filed a fresh lawsuit against R-T Specialty, industry veteran Pat Ryan's rival wholesale start-up, to pursue damages for "misappropriation of trade secrets" following the defection of a senior broker.
  • Heath Lambert's accumulated dividend deficit with its preference shareholders has reached more than £15.5mn after rolling over unpaid for five years, accounts filed at Companies House show.
  • Lloyd's has ordered dedicated UK motor underwriter Equity Syndicate 218 to increase the amount of underwriting capital that it puts up by around a quarter following recent revelations of under-reserving in heavy loss-making years.
  • Proponents of plans for a New York Insurance Exchange (NYIE) are wooing a senior industry figure to drive the initiative forward and develop a business plan on behalf of the sector.
  • Fitch Ratings has put Brit Insurance on “watch negative” over fears that a private equity takeover could weaken the UK insurer’s financial profile. 
  • American International Group (AIG) has predicted that its Asian operation, AIA Group Ltd, will achieve an operating profit unlikely to be less than $2bn by the end of November.
  • The majority of delays over claims are down to intermediaries, according to Lloyd's underwriting director Tom Bolt.
  • Axis Capital has ratcheted up its stock repurchase programme with authorisation to buy back an additional $750mn of its shares, as capital management continues to sit at the top of (re)insurers' agendas.
  • Munich Re-owned Lloyd's managing agency Beaufort has increased its stake in Syndicate 318 during the Society's capacity auctions and is now obliged to offer to buy out all of the remaining Names for the 2012 year of account, according to a Lloyd's circular.
  • Airline insurance rates are again flat to falling even though the sector has yet to return to profit, according to Aon's Airline Insurance Market Indicators report for 2010/11.
  • Lloyd's (re)insurer Novae has secured High Court approval to fold its UK insurance company business into Syndicate 2007, potentially releasing up to £60mn in under-deployed capital.
  • Analysts have branded RSA's ambitious £5bn all-cash bid for the non-life operations of Aviva as "very low" and "puzzling", suggesting it could be a tactical ploy prior to a friendly merger.