September 2013/4

Legacy-to-live specialist Enstar Group has completed the takeover of Arden Reinsurance in collaboration with private equity firm Stone Point.

Weekly share price movements and key data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers and brokers

The CEO and chairman of Riverstone, Nick Bentley, has said that having live operations within the Fairfax Financial Holdings group allowed it to be more competitive in its ASI bid

The UK Prudential Regulation Authority has issued two surprise proposals that could block the use of solvent schemes of arrangement and impose higher capital requirements for capital extractions

Scor is attempting to open up the French property cat reinsurance market by mounting a legal challenge against the quasi-monopoly of CCR

A UK court ruled last week that the police must compensate insurers RSA and Mitsui Sumitomo for millions of pounds in claims they paid out after a Sony distribution warehouse in north London was damaged during the 2011 riots.

Bermudian (re)insurer Arch has reached a $42mn settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, ending the first of three on-going coverage disputes relating to a toxic waste spill deemed to be among the largest in US history

A New York district court approved General Reinsurance Company's $72mn settlement with American International Group (AIG) shareholders over long-running claims that it was involved in bogus reinsurance deals and accounting fraud.

The European Parliament has postponed a key vote on the proposed Solvency II capital regime for insurers from October to 11 March 2014

A panel of UK lawmakers has delayed the publication of a list of insurers and other firms that used rogue private investigators to illegally gather information about their customers until next month at the earliest.

Benjamin Lawsky, the increasingly activist New York financial services superintendent, has threatened to pull New York out of the state-wide system of life insurance regulation outlined by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the branch of the Bank of England responsible for monitoring the stability of the financial system, is scrutinising the burgeoning insurance-linked securities (ILS) market amid concerns it could allow insurers to transfer risk too cheaply.

Congressman Bill Cassidy has called a group of ILS experts together to look into whether US flood risk could be transferred to the capital markets via catastrophe bonds

An upswing in interest rates and yields from other asset classes is less likely to affect investor demand for insurance-linked securities (ILS) than continued rate softening, Leadenhall Capital Partners CEO Luca Albertini said.

PCS and the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange are working towards listing industry loss warranty (ILW) products based on the agency's catastrophe loss data, company representatives told Trading Risk at the Monte Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-Vous.

Collateralised reinsurance writer AQR Re will close its London office from 2014, sister publication Trading Risk revealed during last week\'s Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous.

There was no threatening storm in the Atlantic and the agenda was set well before the mid-year US cat renewals, but that did not prevent the 2013 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous from being a little livelier than it has been in recent years.

A mere five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the effective closure of the capital markets, P&C reinsurers are being repeatedly warned to either adapt to the alternative capital influx or face becoming irrelevant

Competition in the energy reinsurance market remains tough, according to the monthly Willis Energy Market Review newsletter.

Property cat remains the single most testing tail risk for (re)insurers despite the emergence of new exposures such as cyber liability, according to General Re CEO Tad Montross.

Aon Benfield has fought off competition from Guy Carpenter and Willis Re to hold onto prize catastrophe reinsurance account Suncorp, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

Liberty Mutual has brought part of its catastrophe reinsurance programme to the market early, in the latest example of a cedant attempting to lock in softening cat rates.

AmTrust Financial continues to divide opinion among the analyst community, with JMP Securities' Matt Carletti defending the firm after recent concerns from bears and short sellers.

Willis Re has reshuffled the senior management at its Global Specialty business in a move aimed at growing the division under new recruit Graeme Moore.

Under-fire (re)insurer Tower Group is examining its strategic options as it seeks to recover from an embarrassing post-merger reserve charge.

Sompo Re is looking to establish an underwriting platform in Zurich, sources have told The Insurance Insider.

Airline insurance rates continued to fall in the summer and are still showing no signs of levelling out despite a recent modest increase in loss activity, according to broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group

The unrated insurer Berliner Versicherung may not have been licensed to sell UK professional indemnity (PI) insurance, according to the UK watchdog's financial services register.

White Mountains reinsurance arm Sirius is looking to transition Syndicate 1945 to its own Lloyd's managing agency from turnkey provider Asta after its third year of underwriting

325-year-old market may not have a new CEO in situ when outgoing boss Richard Ward retires at year-end, which would mean an interregnum under the leadership of a senior Corporation executive

Global marine insurance premiums increased by 4.9 percent to $33.05bn last year, reflecting an increase in international trade, according to IUMI

Norwegian protection and indemnity (P&I) club Skuld has reported a positive technical underwriting result for the first half of its 2013 financial year.

Lloyd's performance management director Tom Bolt has warned that the marine hull market is in need of an overhaul as vessels continue to increase in both size and value.

Scor is seeking final approval to move its Channel Syndicate 2015 at Lloyd's from turnkey agent Asta to its own managing agency next year.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance is aiming to write $5bn of annual premium inside of five years as it targets international growth

The Insurance Insider would like to correct some inaccuracies published in its 9 September article titled ‘Flood-hit Allianz targets flat cat renewal'.

Lloyd's members' agent Argenta has extended the fundraising deadline for its innovative VisionRe investment vehicle by a month in order to enlist the support of more potential investors.

Colorado floods; Twelve Capital launch; Hiscox art loss: Blue Capital issue; Travelers buybacks; Asta replaces CEO; Zurich chairman; Prices up; AIG appoints; Assurant positive; Ace Tunisia; Axa fined; Berkshire affirmed; Edwards & Wildman expands; Insurance IT; M&A slump; Brightside bid dropped; PartnerRe to continue buybacks

American International Group has held discussions with reinsurers that could lead to a third overhaul of its catastrophe reinsurance programme in three years

The irony is inescapable. The day the biggest marine salvage operation of all time got underway, most of the people who are footing the bill for the mammoth task sat down in London to begin their annual conference.

Pat Ryan-owned Jubilee Managing Agency Ltd has been merged into the Lloyd's operation of Ontario Teachers'-backed ANV, The Insurance Insider revealed earlier today…