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September
American International Group (AIG) has filed an application with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list its Asian life insurance unit, AIA, reports Reuters.
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Cigna Corporation, the US based global health service and financial company, has appointed Thomas McCarthy, Cigna’s vice president and treasurer, to the position of acting chief financial officer, effective immediately.
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Hurricane Earl weakened slightly to a Category 3 storm on Thursday as it approached the North Carolina Coast, reports Reuters.
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The reinsurance sector will be exposed to insured loss from the Atlantic storm season as their reserve capital was used to offset low premiums, according to Fitch Ratings, Reuters reports.
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South African insurer, Metropolitan, has posted results for the first half of 2010, Reuters reports. The firm’s profit has increased by 13% in the first six months of this year.
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China’s second largest insurer, Ping An Insurance, will combine its bank unit into Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB) in a deal valued at about $4.3bn.
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Sterling National Corporation, a subsidiary of Australian insurance firm QBE, has acquired Seattle Specialty Insurance Services.
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Standard Life will lay off 500 employees as part of its CEO, David Nish’s efforts to cut costs, Bloomberg reports.
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Aegon has repaid Eu500m ($640m) of the Eu3bn it received in support from the Dutch state.
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US broker Brown & Brown has acquired all the assets of Crowe Paradis and two related entities.
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Taiwan's Fubon Financial has come forward as a possible buyer of American International Group's Taiwan unit after the collapse of a planned $2.2bn sale to a Chinese-led group, reports Reuters.
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Global health service company, Cigna, has purchased Antwerp-based Vanbreda International.
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European insurers' first half reporting data, which represented a continuation of sales and profitability levels witnessed during 2009, combined with the challenges faced by these insurers for the remainder of 2010, reinforce the negative outlook on the wider European insurance industry, according to Moody's Investors Service.
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Patrick Thiele is leaving PartnerRe after 10 years. He leaves his successor, Costas Miranthis, a much different firm to the one he inherited.
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Arthur J Gallagher & Co, the international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, has acquired Old Greenwich Consulting Group located in New York.
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As Hurricane Earl approaches the east coast of the US, AIR Worldwide has estimated that already insured losses from Hurricane Earl’s passage near the northern Leeward Islands earlier this week are between $50m and $150m.
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Following the announcement that Glacier Re is going to run-off, Moody's Investors Service has changed its outlook on the Glacier Re sponsored Nelson Re Class H and Class I catastrophe bonds to negative and Class G still at Ca (sf) developing.
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Lloyd's of London insurer Omega Insurance has recorded a pre-tax loss of $34.2m in the six months to June 30, a decline from a profit of $22.9m a year earlier, The Financial Times reports.
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Presidential Life has appointed Duncan Szeto as the new chief actuary of its operating unit, Presidential Life Insurance.
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QBE has denied the truth of media reports and market speculation that the Australian insurer is looking to replace its CEO, Frank O’Halloran.
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European reinsurer Swiss Re is planning to repay investments from Berkshire Hathaway, Bloomberg reports.
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August
AM Best has affirmed the Best’s Syndicate Rating of A (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a+” of Lloyd’s Syndicate 1084 and affirmed the ICR of “bbb” of Chaucer Holdings in the UK.
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AM Best has raised the issuer credit ratings (ICRs) to “a+” from “a” and has also provided the financial strength rating (FSR) of “A” to Ameriprise P&C Companies and its members.
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CNA has appointed Jerry Williams as assistant vice president of business development.
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Globalisation has opened up a dazzling amount of opportunity for the business world. But it has also produced an unprecedented level of risk for the insurance industry to deal with.
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A former senior vice president at brokerage firm Aon Corporation has set up a new firm called Benefits & Risk Solutions.
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France is aiming to slash Eu3.2bn ($405.9) of tax exemptions in the insurance sector, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Hurricane Earl is moving up the eastern US seaboard. If its course follows the western most forecasts, Earl could make contact with the US coast this weekend, according to catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
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Canada-based Manulife Financial is offering a mixed shelf of up to $9.4bn of securities in Canada and the US, Reuters reports.
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Government officials have rejected the planned $2.15bn sale of American International Group’s Taiwanese life insurance unit, Nan Shan, to a Hong Kong consortium, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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Taiwan will review an offer for Nan Shan this week, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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US insurance and wealth management company The Hartford has named Dr David Williams medical director of its individual life Insurance division.
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Amil Participacoes, a Brazilian health insurance provider, is planning to raise $513.8m in a bond sale, Bloomberg reports
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China Pacific Insurance Group’s net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent for the first half of the year reached $590.83m, representing an increase of 66.8% compared with the same period last year.
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The sixth, seventh, and eighth named storms of the northwest Pacific season are approaching the Asian mainland bringing high winds and expected heavy rains, according to catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
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The lawyers of Allen Stanford and two accounting executives who worked for him want to distance their clients from the alleged financial wrongdoing insurer Lloyd's of London cites as a reason to void a policy covering their defence fees, reports Reuters.
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Tropical Storm Earl became a hurricane over the weekend and is likely to become a category three hurricane later today, before heading north towards the US East Coast, reports the RMS/Reactions catastrophe centre.
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Japanese and Qatari investment firms may place their bid for AIG’s Taiwan unit if the present bid gets cancelled, Reuters reports, citing Taiwan’s Commercial Times.
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Marsh, the global insurance broker and risk advisor, has appointed Jay Sharma as multinational client service director.
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Now firmly established in the Tokio Marine fold, Kiln is expanding in Asia and elsewhere, according to its CEO Charles Franks.
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Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is lining up advisers to review options for its insurance business, including a sale, The Telegraph reports.
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Royal London group CEO, Mike Yardley, is planning to step down from his role at the British insurer.
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Second-quarter 2010 earnings for US publicly traded property/casualty insurers were down, largely as a result of catastrophe losses, but capital positions remain solid, according to Moody's Investors Service.
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Major US property/casualty reinsurers wrote $12.3bn of net premiums during the first half of 2010, a decrease from the $12.8bn net premiums written in the first six months of 2009.
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California workers compensation written premium was around $2.9bn in the first quarter of 2010, approximately 12% above the written premium reported for same period last year.
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Ace Asia Pacific has made two senior appointments for its property/casualty business unit in the region.
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Hank Greenberg, former American International Group (AIG) CEO, and another former executive will get $60m from the company’s insurers to cover legal costs as part of a settled lawsuit that alleged Greenberg deceived investors while managing the insurer, reports Reuters.
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American International Group has scrapped plans to sell a strategic stake in its Asian life insurance business ahead of an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange, AIA, reports Reuters.
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Rating agency AM Best has downgraded the financial strength rating to B++ (Good) from A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating to “bbb+” from “a-” of Glacier Reinsurance, placing both ratings under review with negative implications.
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With the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans on August 29, Reactions' editor Michael Loney reflects on how the insurance and reinsurance market has changed since then.
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The insurance-linked securities market had an impressive second quarter. It was so good some believe full year cat bond issuance could now beat last year’s total.
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Hurricane Danielle has reached major hurricane status, becoming the most intense storm of the 2010 season, while Tropical Storm Earl is likely to intensify to a hurricane in the next few days, according catastrophe modelling firm Risk Management Solutions.
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The European Commission is probing whether certain practices used by ship insurers breach the European Union’s rules on fair competition, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Hank Greenberg, former AIG CEO, has settled lawsuits alleging he deceived investors while managing the insurer, Bloomberg reports.
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Glacier Reinsurance, the European reinsurer, has announced today that the company’s existing portfolio will be placed in to an orderly run-off with immediate effect.
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Glacier Reinsurance, the European reinsurer, has announced today that the company’s existing portfolio will be placed in to an orderly run-off with immediate effect.
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Manulife Financial and Switzerland’s Ace are among potential buyers for New York Life Insurance’s Asian assets, Reuters reports.
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A number of private equity firms are reviewing the books of Transamerica Reinsurance, which its Dutch parent Aegon has put up for sale, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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Bermuda insurer White Mountains Insurance Group has announced that it has been authorised by its board of directors to repurchase up to 600,000 common shares, from time to time, subject to market conditions.
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Ageas has reported a 49% decline in its net profit in the first half of this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Bermuda-based Axis Capital Holdings has announced that executive vice-president and chief financial officer David Greenfield will resign from his position, effective November 30 2010.
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UK insurer Chaucer Holdings has recorded profit before tax in the first six months of 2010 of £7m ($10.9m) compared with £17m in the same period last year.
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China Life Insurance’s profit rose by 7.4% in the first half of 2010.
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Endurance Specialty Holdings has announced a new hire to lead the expansion of Endurance's global reinsurance portfolio in the Latin American market.
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UK insurer Admiral has reported a half-year profit before tax at £126.9m, a 21% increase from the same period last year.
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Aetna has raised $750m in a sale of 10-year notes, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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CNA has appointed James Stegemiller as commercial underwriting officer for San Francisco.
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The approach of Solvency II has a classic sci-fi feel to it, says Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth. And now that attention is being focused on the fifth quantitative impact study, QIS 5, an insurance remake of the cult sci-fi movie The Fifth Element is in pre-production.
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Despite the material operational and financial exposure that European insurers have to certain heavily indebted countries within the Eurozone, rating agency Moody's says that it does not expect this to weigh down the credit profiles of large European insurers.
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Fitch Ratings has affirmed the insurer financial strength at AA and issuer default rating at AA- of Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe. The rating outlook is negative.
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The UK FSA has fined the UK branch of Zurich Insurance for a lack of adequate systems and controls. The fine is the highest levied to date on a single firm for data security failings, said the FSA.
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European reinsurer Hannover Re is planning to bolster its investments in shares and real estate in order to boost its 3.5% return on investment target, reports Reuters.
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European Union regulators have approved MetLife’s $15.5bn acquisition of American Life Insurance (Alico) and Delaware American Life Insurance.
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US insurer American International Group is expected to decide early next week whether to enter formal negotiations with strategic investors for its Asian life business, AIA, reports Reuters.
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US-listed property/casualty insurers grew their book values and posted respectable operating earnings per share and returns on equity in the second quarter of 2010, according to a Morgan Stanley review.
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S&P has raised its counterparty credit rating on Validus Holdings and assigned counterparty credit and financial strength ratings to Validus' reinsurance subsidiary, Validus Reinsurance.
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The question of where or not the attorney fees of Allan Stanford and his co-defendants are covered by directors’ and officers’ liability (D&O) insurance is being debated in a three-day US bench trial.
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Suncorp Metway reported in its full-year earnings that its net profit rose to $688.4m from $307.6m a year ago.
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Swiss asset manager, Alternative Beta Partners, has unveiled a securities cat bond index, Reuters reports.
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New York state judge has awarded US insurer Travelers $262.3m plus interest in a 17-year-old reinsurance asbestos coverage case, the facts of which date back to the late 1940s, reports CNBC.
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AIG has said it is confident it will get regulatory approval for the $2.2bn sale of its Taiwan unit Nan Shan Life to a group led by China Strategic, reports Reuters.
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Cathay Life Insurance is seeking to increase its overseas investments, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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China’s CNinsure has received total net revenues of $95.5m in the first half of 2010, up by 29.2%, from the same period of 2009.
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The system over the open waters of the Atlantic has strengthened to become Hurricane Danielle – the second hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, reports the RMS Catastrophe Centre.
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US insurer Eastern Insurance Holdings has unveiled its succession plan for the CEO role.
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ING is planning to raise about Eu2bn in a sale of covered bonds, Bloomberg reports.
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HDFC Ergo General Insurance, a venture between India’s biggest mortgage lender and a Munich Re unit, is likely to turn profitable by March 2012, Bloomberg reports
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AIG's aircraft leasing unit ILFC has repaid nearly $4bn in debt to its parent, after completing a $4.4bn bond sale to investors on Friday and it is now expected to be able to fund itself. AIG has used the payment to reduce its debt to the Federal Reserve.
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AM Best has provided financial strength rating of A and issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a” to Catlin Insurance companies.
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Amlin has reported profit before tax of £108m ($168m) for the first half of 2010, down 39% from £177m in the first half of 2009.
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Aviva has renewed its contract with Spanish bank Banco Santander.
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AIG has won the dismissal of a $34.4m judgement in a lawsuit accusing it of fraudulently inducing an Axa affiliate to enter two reinsurance contracts, Reuters reports.
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Beazley, the international specialist insurance businesses, is expanding its environmental liability team on both sides of the Atlantic with the recruitment of two senior underwriters, James Wilkins and Nicholas Pearson.
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The insurance brokerage industry remains financially solid despite the weak US economy and soft commercial property/causality insurance market, according to the Moody's Investors Service Industry Scorecard report.
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The Dutch Finance Ministry has given the investment bank Nomura authority to review the options for the sale of the state-owned insurer ASR Nederland, reports the M&A Navigator.
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Bermudian run-off consolidator Enstar Group’s executive chairman, John Oros, has quit from his position and as a member of the board of directors.
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The Federal Reserve is planning to lower American International Group (AIG)’s credit line by around $3.6bn, Bloomberg reports.
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Lloyd’s of London underwriter Equity Red Star is under investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), amid concerns about the impact of bodily injury claims on its balance sheet, reports the Sunday Telegraph.
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Hiscox has today reported net income of £97m ($151m) for the first half of 2010, down from £141m in the same period last year.
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Despite a challenging capital markets environment, ILS continue to provide value to sponsors and investors, according to Aon Benfield Securities, the investment banking division of Aon Benfield.
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The CEA, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, has called on all European insurers to take part in the European Commission’s fifth quantitative impact study in preparation for the EU’s new regulatory regime, Solvency II.
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Japan's three largest property/casualty insurance groups are strengthening their risk management processes in order to comply with tougher Solvency II capital regulations, reports the Nikkei English News.
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US insurer Liberty Mutual Group has been given operating approval for its branch in Zhejiang, China.
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Managing agents at Lloyd’s have seen 49% growth in actuarial resources over the past three years as the demands on managing agents from Solvency II develop, according to a new survey.
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The US National Hurricane Centre has said that the Tropical Storm Danielle may become a hurricane by the night of Tuesday August 24.
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Allianz Commercial has promoted Russell Warren to the division’s new SME underwriting manager.
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Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America has appointed Marty Vanderzanden as director of Special Investigations.
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Atradius has appointed Mark Palmer to head its London special products team, Creditman reports.
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Underwriters and their bosses that fear that they may be liable for claims to arise from the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will have breathed a sigh of relief if they read the New York Times this week.
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Reserve releases have helped prop up the US property/casualty industry’s results. But releases are running out and a period of reserve deficiencies lies ahead.
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Gjensidige Forsikring is planning to raise about Eu1bn ($1.3bn) in an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reports
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PMA Capital has appointed John Cochrane as its senior vice president and CFO.
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Tawa, a UK-based insurance service provider and run-off investor, has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire 94.3% of the issued shares of Island Capital, a run-off credit and political risk insurer.
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Vienna Insurance Group's profit amounted to Eu255.6m ($324.2m) in the first six months of 2010, 11% more than last year, despite natural disasters.
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AMP has witnessed a rise in underlying profit to A$383m for the six months to June 2010, a 4.4% increase on the six months to June 2009.
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Aon, the world’s largest insurance brokerage firm, is planning to issue $1.5bn of senior notes, Bloomberg reports.
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The excess and surplus lines division of the international specialty insurer and reinsurer Argo Group International Holdings has appointed Michael Fleischer as E&S division chief underwriting officer.
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A federal appeals court has decided to partly restore part of a nationwide class-action lawsuit that accused a large group of insurers and brokers of bid-rigging.
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European insurers would be able to withstand an external shock derived from a hypothetical Greek sovereign default, including an assumption of ancillary stress for other key euro zone nations, according to a Fitch Ratings sovereign stress test of its rated portfolio of European insurers.
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Climate change could increase the risk of hurricanes and storms in the Caribbean and threaten future development in the region, according to a new study released by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility
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Progressive has posted its July 2010 results.
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QBE Insurance’s net profit fell to $440m in the first half of 2010 as compared to $720m in the first half of 2009.
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Australian insurance group QBE has revealed that it is reviewing its equity strategy because of an increase in capital charges by the Australian regulator.
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Towers Watson, the global professional services company, has announced net income of $58m for the quarter ended June 30 2010, an increase from $31m for the same quarter in 2009.
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AIG is preparing for its first debt offering since the troubled insurer nearly went under during the financial crisis, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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Aon Benfield Securities has announced the launch of the Aon Benfield ILS Indices, which provide a quantitative view of monthly ILS returns since December 2000.
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Brit Insurance, the international general insurance and reinsurance group, has promoted Ray Cox to chief executive officer of its UK strategic business unit.
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China Taiping Insurance has received total revenue of $3.574bn in the first half of 2010 as compared to $1.978bn in the first half of 2009.
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US insurer Hartford Financial Services Group has named Andy Napoli as president of consumer markets.
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The trend of strong returns for the insurance-linked securities market since the financial crisis has continued in the first half of 2010 and could beat last year in terms of issuance, according to a Swiss Re ILS market update.
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Canadian life insurer Manulife Financial is seeking to raise $900m through a sale of unsecured senior debt notes.
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The NAIC's Solvency Modernisation Initiative Task Force has released an updated SMI Roadmap during its Summer National Meeting in Seattle, Reactions’ sister website Insurance Capital Risk reports.
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UK life insurance consolidator Resolution’s pre-tax profit from continuing operations rose to £139m ($217m), as opposed to a £7m loss in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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RMS has announced the phase one release of its Australia Severe Convective Storm Model, covering damage from hailstorm, water ingress, downburst winds, and tornadoes.
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Torus, the global specialty insurer, has appointed Michael Kim to the newly created role of global head of project management. Kim will also be a member of Torus’ executive management team.
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Swiss insurance group Zurich Financial Services Group has appointed Thomas Sepp to the position of chief claims officer, effective September 1 2010.
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Dutch insurer Aegon has reached a deal with the European Commission to repay the remaining Eu2bn ($2.6bn) it received in state aid from the Dutch government during the financial crisis.
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Aviva and analysts alike do not believe the value of the offer adequately recognises the fact that Aviva is a leading general insurance business in the UK and Ireland, and the number two player in Canada.
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Axis Global Accident & Health has appointed Giles Allen as senior vice-president, international accident and health insurance operations.
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The transfer of Tahan Insurance Malaysia’s general insurance business to Great Eastern Holdings’ Overseas Assurance Corporation (Malaysia) has been approved, Malaysia Star reports.
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Ipac Asset Management, an Australian investment management firm, has bought a $50m stake in a Bermuda insurance-linked securities fund managed by Nephila Capital, according to the Artemis.bm website.
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Chubb has become the first insurer to be awarded chartered insurer in the UK.
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Covea and Aviva are looking to acquire a majority stake in the life insurance business being sold by Italy’s Banca Popolare di Milano.
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The overhaul of accounting standard proposed in the IASB’s recent exposure draft would be a pain for insurers to comply with. But the benefits outweigh the inconvenience.
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The UK Financial Services Authority has banned five individuals for insurance fraud. It has also imposed one of its largest ever fines of £150,000 ($233,755) on one of these individuals and £50,000 on another.
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Danish insurer TrygVesta has reported a large fall in second-quarter net profit to Dkk128m ($22.1m) in 2010 from Dkk710m in the same period in 2009.
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Allied World Assurance has bought back a warrant owned by Chubb, which entitled Chubb to buy a total of two million Allied World common shares for $34.2 per share.
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The 22 members of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers have reported an improved compliance rate for insurance and reinsurance contracts.
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A consortium of Chinese companies, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Life Insurance, plans to bid for a 30% stake in AIG's Asian life insurance business, AIA.
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Endurance Specialty Holdings is buying back ordinary shares of up to seven million in an open market transaction
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Kingsway Financial Services has posted its financial results for the second quarter of 2010. The company’s net loss was $18.5m for the second quarter of 2010 as compared with $38.4m in the second quarter of 2009.
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A 6.3-magnitude earthquake has hit Papua New Guinea, ABC Online reports
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The board of RSA Insurance has released a statement saying it remains open to discussions following the rejected offer to buy the general insurance operations of Aviva.
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The remnants of Tropical Depression Five have reorganised after losing strength last week and the system has a 60% change of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, according to catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
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Aegon’s underlying earnings before tax rose to Eu522m ($669), supported by improved financial markets, in the second quarter of 2010. The Dutch insurer’s impairments dropped to Eu77m.
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UK insurer RSA has been turned away in a £5bn ($7.8bn) approach to buy the general insurance business of Aviva, reports the Financial Times.
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Chartis, Ace and Zurich, alongside BP’s other directors’ and officers’ liability insurers, could face substantial exposure to claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to law firm Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge.
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Brit Insurance Holdings has nominated Scott Egan as the group’s CFO.
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The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has permitted insurance companies to invest up to 15% of their total assets in overseas capital markets, Reuters reports.
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Ecuador and parts of Peru have been hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, AFP reports.
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Florida voters believe changes to the insurance laws over the past four years that promised to improve conditions for consumers have failed, with 86% of homeowners believing their homeowners’ insurance situation has either stayed the same or become worse, according to a public poll.
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The US government’s failure to gather information about which countries’ institutions would benefit from some of its rescue actions meant the US bore the brunt of the risk and costs associated with the financial crisis bailout, according to a Congressional Oversight Panel report.
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Guy Carpenter & Company has added Erik Manning to the firm’s Global Specialties, which is comprised of marine, energy, aviation, retrocession and Bermuda business.
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Sampo Group’s profit before taxes for the first half of this year increased to Eu621m ($795m). The Finnish insurer’s total comprehensive income for the period, taking changes in the market value of assets into account, was Eu773m.
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The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California has submitted a filing to the California Department of Insurance recommending an approximate 29.6% increase in pure premium rates effective January 1 2011.
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US insurer Ace has announced that John Keogh, chairman, insurance – overseas general, has been named to the additional position of vice-chairman, Ace Limited and Ace Group Holdings.
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American International Group (AIG) has begun discussions with potential investors to sell stakes in its Asian life insurance unit AIA in preparation of an initial public offering, Reuters reports.
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Chinese insurer CNinsure is reshuffling its senior management team to reassign resources for the creation of its four new profit centers.
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Even when he is on vacation, Reactions’ contributing editor Garry Booth cannot help but think about the implications for the insurance industry.
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Dai-ichi Life Insurance has reported a $121.91m group net profit for the April to June period, compared with $346.98m in the previous year.
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The second quarter net profit of ING Group increased to Eu1.09bn ($1.4bn) from Eu71m in the same quarter last year.
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Ironshore, the broker-sourced specialty commercial property and casualty insurer, has announced that its UK-based Pembroke Syndicate 4000 has introduced a professional indemnity product to provide comprehensive coverages for the oil and gas industry worldwide.
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The Navigators Group has appointed Robert Mendelsohn to its board of directors.
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UK insurer Prudential has reported a better-than-expected 34% rise in first-half operating profit, reports Reuters.
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Tropical storm Dianmu is approaching the north of Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Bloomberg reports.
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Willis Group Holdings, the global insurance broker, has appointed Alastair Burns as managing director of its Insurance Facilities Practice, part of Willis Global Placement division that co-ordinates worldwide insurance placement strategy for the benefit of Willis clients.
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Zurich’s UK General Insurance unit has named Peter Clark head of property and strategy exposure management for commercial lines, the Financial Times reports.
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Ace European Group, part of the global insurer and reinsurer Ace Group, has announced the appointment of Steve Dixon as regional managing director, Ace Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
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Ace Canada, the Canadian-based operating division of the Ace Group, has appointed Bruce Walker as chief financial officer.
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AM Best has provided a financial strength rating of “A” (Excellent) to Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC). The ratings firm has also assigned an issuer credit rating of “a” to the company.
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While capacity is still abundant in the aviation market, the string of losses in June and July look set to bring 2010 perilously close to a fourth consecutive year with limited returns for many underwriters, according to Aon.
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Chinatrust Financial Holdings has reiterated that it is willing to buy American International Group’s Taiwan life insurance unit if the joint deal with China Strategic Holdings and Primus falls through, Reuters reports.
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Fortress Investment Group has announced it plans to acquire 80% of American International Group’s consumer credit unit.
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Hannover Re has appointed Dr Klaus Miller as a full member of the executive board with effect from 1 September 2010.
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As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has released a white paper that shows the lessons learned from the event continue to have a profound effect on the industry.
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Lockton has appointed Shelly Horwitz as an account executive in the retirement and financial services area, Lockton Investment Advisors and Lockton Financial Advisors.
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Mondial Assistance has appointed Beth Godlin as managing director of Mondial Assistance USA.
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Moody's has assigned a rating of B1 to International Lease Finance Corporation's $500m senior unsecured notes due 2017 and revised the AIG aircraft leasing unit’s outlook to stable from negative.
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The board of Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe Holdings announced today a quarterly dividend of $0.25 a common share on its common stock.
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A London law firm, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), says the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK is in the throes of staff turmoil.
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The drought that is presently occurring in Russia will increase interest in the emerging Russian crop insurance market as farmers reassess the risk of crop failure, according to Swiss Re, Reuters reports.
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Tower Group has reported net income of $28.3m in the second quarter of 2010 as compared with $30.6m in the second quarter of 2009.
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International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) is planning to raise about $2.5bn of senior secured notes in three parts.
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AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A+ (Superior) and issuer credit rating of “aa-” of Mapfre Re, Compania de Reaseguros (Mapfre Re) in Spain.
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AIG's underlying insurance operations show continued signs of stability, which bodes well for the troubled insurer. But analysts remain concerned about the impact of the government’s exit and the company’s recapitalisation efforts.
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Chartis, the property/casualty arm of AIG, today announced an increase in underwriting capacity from the oil rig unit of its global marine and energy division.
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Chaucer Holdings has announced the appointment of Tim Carroll as a non-executive director of Chaucer Syndicates Limited, its managing agency and main operating company.
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Great-West Lifeco has raised $485m in a bond sale.
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As a result of the heavy burden of major catastrophe losses Hannover Re has made net income of Eu310.6m ($412m) in the first six months of 2010, compared with Eu433.5m in the first six months of 2009.
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The Association of Mexican Insurance Companies has said that a hurricane and earthquake that struck northern Mexico earlier this year caused insured losses of about 5.25bn pesos ($414m).
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New York Life Insurance has appointed John Kim as CIO in addition to his other duties.
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Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is seeking buyers for its US insurance unit, Bloomberg reports.
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S&P has affirmed its A counterparty credit rating on Bermuda-based reinsurance holding company PartnerRe and its AA- counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on PartnerRe's core operating subsidiaries.
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Samsung Life Insurance has posted the results of its quarter ending on June 30, 2010, Reuters reports.
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Allied World Assurance has bought back $250m of its common shares from its founding shareholders, GS Capital Partners and other investment funds.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has reported net earnings of $1.96bn in the second quarter of 2010 compared with $3.30bn in the second quarter of 2009.
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Net income doubled in 2009 over 2008 for a composite of 195 US captive insurers followed by rating agency AM Best, driven by the recovery of the industry’s investments.
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Eight catastrophe bond transactions totalling $2bn in risk capital were completed in the second quarter of 2010, making it the second most active second quarter on record, according to a new report by Guy Carpenter.
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Australian insurance group QBE has been restructured into three main operating divisions – Europe, the Americas and Australia Asia Pacific.
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Resolution’s 95.5% shareholders subscribed to its rights issue, Bloomberg reports. The share sale will help in funding the buyout firm’s acquisition of Axa’s UK life insurance unit.
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US insurer The Hanover Insurance Group today announced that Gerald Merritt has joined the company as president of its professional liability business.
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American International Group fell to a $2.7bn loss for the second quarter as a result of charges associated with the sale of one of its Asian life insurance units.
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Catlin Group, the international specialty property/casualty insurer and reinsurer, has reported net income of $57m in the first six months of 2010 compared with net income of $196m in the same period last year.
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China’s insurance regulator has set rules governing insurers’ investments, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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CNA Financial is selling $500m of senior notes in a public offering.
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US insurance firm CNA has announced John Ryszetnyk and Roger Ecoff have joined its ocean marine operation as assistant vice-president and as risk control consulting director, respectively.
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Assicurazioni Generali’s second-quarter net profit has decreased by 16% due to lower returns from its investments, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Harbinger Capital Partners is nearing a deal to acquire the US life insurance unit of Old Mutual, Bloomberg reports.
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Manulife Financial has posted a loss of $2.4bn for the second quarter that ended June 30, 2010.
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US insurance firm Markel Corporation has reported net income per share of $2.12 for the quarter ended June 30 2010 compared with $3.34 for the second quarter of 2009.
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Global insurance broker Aon has responded to the US President's Working Group on Financial Markets' request for comment on the long-term availability and affordability of terrorism risk insurance.
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As of Thursday 5 August, Tropical Storm Colin has regenerated over the Atlantic, just over 48 hours after it dissipated as a tropical system, reports the RMS/Reactions Catastrophe centre.
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Aflac has raised $750m in a sale of senior notes in two parts.
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According to the US Government Accountability Office, the Treasury team that manages the AIG bailout investment has been investigating a number of possible exit strategies but will not employ one until AIG has repaid its debt to the FRBNY.
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Allstate has reported a $441m operating income increase in the second quarter of 2010 compared to $297m in the same period of 2009.
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Aspen Insurance Holdings has appointed Timothy Ryan to lead a new excess casualty team, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Axa is reshuffling its senior management team. Nicolas Moreau will be CEO of Axa France and Paul Evans will become CEO of Axa UK and will join the executive committee.
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Hardy Underwriting Bermuda reported that first half net profit plummeted by 90% after the insurer suffered a number of large catastrophe losses.
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Analysts have praised the ‘stunning’ second quarter performance of Lancashire Holdings after the Bermuda-based insurer reported only modest exposure to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster.
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Liberty Mutual Group has reported net income of $220m for the three months ended June 30 2010, a decrease of $48m from the same period in 2009.
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New changes to financial services legislation in the US will increase business opportunities for the London market and make it easier for companies to insure US risks, believes Dave Matcham, chief executive officer of the International Underwriting Association.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has cut its forecast for hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin this hurricane season, but is still expected to be very active.
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Novae Group has rebounded to first half profit despite a number of large losses hitting the market.
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Papua New Guinea’s New Britain Island was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, Reuters reports.
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Bermudian reinsurance company PartnerRe has reported net income of $191m for the second quarter, down from $474m in the same quarter last year.
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Sun Life Financial has received net income of $213m in the second quarter of 2010 as compared to $591m in the second quarter of 2009.
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Swiss Re said it swung to a second quarter profit after a rebound in its asset management division offset a poor underwriting performance.
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US insurance firm The Hartford has reported net income of $76m for the second quarter, compared with a net loss of $15m in the same quarter last year.
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The composite rate for property/casualty placements in the US decreased 3% in July 2010.
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Bermudian insurer and reinsurer Validus Holdings has reported net income of $179.8m for the second quarter of 2010, compared with net income of $137.6m for the same period in 2009.
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Zurich Financial Services reported that first half profit fell by 10% on higher catastrophe claims, reduced investment income and provisions against banking loans.
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Jens Reisch has been appointed as CEO of Allianz Malaysia and Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia. Reisch, who joined the firm in 1983, will start in his new role with immediate effect.
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Santander has appointed Aviva to provide life insurance policies to its UK customers from June 2011.
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Axa Asia Pacific Holdings has posted its financial results, new business and funds flow for the first half of 2010.
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French insurer Axa said that first half net income fell 28% to Eu944m ($1.2bn) as a result of a Eu1.5bn charge related to the sale of part of its UK life operation.
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Chartis has appointed Makoto Ozeki as COO and executive vice president of Chartis Far East Holdings.
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Bermuda is not going away but it is under threat, says Reactions' editor Michael Loney.
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HCC Insurance Holdings' net earnings for the second quarter of 2010 were $83.4m as compared with $91.6m during the second quarter of 2009.
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The new UK Bribery Act (the Act), which will come into force in April next year, is designed to provide a more effective framework for the relevant authorities to bring the force of the law to bear on bribery.
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Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, reported better-than-expected earnings after strong investment income offset the cost of disasters, including the claims from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
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Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission has agreed to allow local insurers to invest up to 10% of their overseas allocation quota in Chinese securities, Bloomberg reports.
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The July/August 2010 issue of Reactions is now online. Click through to read a selection of articles.
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Torus has expanded its casualty platform with the appointment of David Whyman as senior vice-president, UK head of casualty, based in London.
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The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has appointed Alain Dromer as chairman of its investment committee. Dromer is CEO of Aviva Investors.
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Bermuda insurance and reinsurance firm Axis Capital Holdings has reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $205m compared with $159m for the second quarter of 2009.
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Builders Insurance Group has appointed Owen Dwoskin as CFO. Dwoskin will be in charge of financial reporting and record-keeping, asset management, financial modelling and forecasting.
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Catlin Group has appointed Peter Schmidt as CEO of European Reinsurance and Catlin Re Switzerland, which subject to regulatory approval will begin writing specialty classes of reinsurance for European clients later this year.
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Risk officers are a busy lot, what with having to cope with complying with new solvency regulation, cross border risk management and complex internal models.
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July experienced some of the worst flood events in history, with Asia being particularly affected by losses, according to Aon Benfield’s monthly cat recap report.
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Illinois Democrat Debbie Halvorson is seeking new rules for life insurance firms profiting from accounts holding death benefits from policies of dead US soldiers and veterans, Bloomberg reports.
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Liberty Syndicates Management, a member of Liberty Mutual Group, is entering the UK and Irish motor insurance markets through the hiring of a team of specialist motor underwriters.
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Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) today reported a second quarter net income of $236m, compared with a loss of $193m in the same period last year.
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MetLife is seeking to sell 75 million shares of common stock to the public. The US insurer is also planning to offer about $3bn in senior debt in several series with varying maturities and interest rates.
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Bermudian insurance and reinsurance company Alterra Capital Holdings has reported net income of $103.4m for the second quarter of 2010, compared with net income of $43.8m for the same quarter of 2009.
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Malaysia’s Pacific & Orient (P&O) is planning to sell its stake in its insurance unit, Pacific & Orient Insurance. The insurer is in talks with Prudential Holdings for the sale.
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Insurance rates in the power sector are expected to soften further in 2010, despite conditions that would normally foreshadow a hardening market, according to the latest Power Market Review from Willis, a member of Willis Group, the global insurance broker.
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Bermudian insurance and reinsurance company XL Group has reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $191.8m, compared with $79.9m for the second quarter of 2009.
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AIG has named Citigroup as the fourth joint global coordinator for the planned share market float of its Asian life insurance business, AIA, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group Argo Group International Holdings has reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $26.1m compared with $21.9m for the second quarter of 2009.
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CNA Financial Corporation has reported a net income of $283m in the second quarter of 2010 compared with a net income of $105m in the second quarter of 2009.
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The good news in the recently-passed US financial services reform is that the insurance industry has not been anywhere near as badly swept up in the backlash as some feared. The bad news is, says Reactions' editor Michael Loney, is it will still be a pain for the industry.
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The New York attorney general has subpoenaed six more life insurers to probe into how they make payouts to policy beneficiaries, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Deepwater Horizon will not be a market-turning event for the property/casualty insurance industry, according to Towers Watson. However, the insurance policies of all parties directly involved are likely to be exhausted and other corporations that were indirectly involved will be targeted.
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Fitch Ratings has affirmed ratings of Everest Reinsurance and its subsidiaries. The firm has allotted an insurer financial strength rating of AA- to Everest’s new European operating entity, Everest Reinsurance Company (Ireland).
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Fitch Ratings has revised the rating outlook for Japan's non-life insurance industry to stable from negative.
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Reinsurance firm Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings has announced a second quarter net income of $13.3m in 2010, compared with net income $67.8m for the second quarter of 2009.
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Iran was struck by two earthquakes in less than 24 hours, The Associated Press reports. The first quake had a magnitude of 5.7 and hit villages and towns in the northeast on July 30, injuring more than 200 people.
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A New York monoline bond insurer has filed a lawsuit suit against its reinsurer for backing out of a contract and forcing the insurer to take responsibility for a bond insurance policy after the policy became risky and unprofitable, according to law firm Goldberg Segalla.
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PMI Mortgage Insurance has sold its equity investment in FGIC, the holding company of Financial Guaranty Insurance. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
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QBE and Towergate Underwriting have announced that QBE will be the insurer of an arrangement for commercial property owners business.
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A Standard & Poor’s report found the property/casualty insurance industry to be “financially strong” and well-poised to manage further volatility, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Aviva USA, part of Aviva, the world's fifth largest insurance group, has named Christopher Welp as executive vice-president of insurance operations for the Des Moines-based company.
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July
The Ace Group has appointed Bruce Kessler as president of Ace Westchester. Kessler will be based in Atlanta and will report to John Lupica, COO, insurance- North America.
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The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has said that the toxic assets the US government took over from American International Group (AIG) during the financial crisis are gaining value for the first time, the Associated Press reports.
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This week, Swiss Re announced what is says is a first-of-its-kind agreement with the Alabama State Insurance Fund to provide a three-year parametric insurance cover for hurricane exposure. Reactions spoke to Swiss Re to talk about what this means for the state.
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Allianz Life Insurance of North America has appointed 11 regional vice-presidents for Allianz Life Financial Services.
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Global insurance broker Aon Corporation has reported results net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $153m, compared with $149m for the same quarter last year.
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Argo Group US, a subsidiary of Bermuda based Argo Group International Holdings, has announced the formation of its Argo Management Liability platform, an expansion of the company’s management liability and professional lines capabilities.
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OneBeacon Insurance Group has reported 2010 second quarter net income of $8.6m compared with $134.4m in the same period in 2009.
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Canadian insurance firm Fairfax Financial Holdings has announced net earnings of $325.2m in the second quarter of 2010, compared to net earnings of $275.4m in the second quarter of 2009.
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US insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher has acquired the remaining 60% equity interest in Specialised Broking Associates (SBA), headquartered in Perth, Western Australia.
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The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in London has announced proposals for the introduction of standardised book-keeping measures to give investors better data. The news been met with mixed reactions among insurers.
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The property/casualty insurance industry has suffered from sharp declines in asset values resulting from weak investment conditions and other difficulties in the financial markets, but generally to a lesser degree than other sectors, according to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
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Frank O’Halloran has a tough return target for Australian insurance and reinsurance group QBE and he is not budging, despite stagnant pricing, falling investment returns and first-half catastrophes.
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MetLife has received net income of $1.56bn in the second quarter of 2010 as compared with a loss of $1.4bn in the second quarter of 2009.
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OneBeacon Insurance has hired Dennis Crosby as president of the company's newest business, OneBeacon Excess and Surplus Lines. Crosby will immediately join the team.
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Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) is planning to start a new subsidiary specialising in life and medical insurance, The Peninsula reports.
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RSA Insurance group has acquired 123 Money, an Irish personal lines insurance company, making RSA the second largest general insurer in Ireland.
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W R Berkley has appointed Douglas Powers as president and CEO for Carolina Casualty Insurance. He has replaced William Haines, effective immediately.
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The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers has announced several staff appointments and the retirement of senior vice-president, Barbara Haugen.
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Guy Carpenter said Philippe Renault will join the firm as president and CEO of Guy Carpenter’s Paris operations, effective September 1.
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US insurance regulators are searching for a firm to assess commercial mortgage-backed securities, Bloomberg reports.
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Lincoln Financial Group has reported $255m net income for the second quarter of 2010. The US insurance group reported a net loss of $161m in the second quarter of 2009.
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Catastrophe bond sales in the second half of 2010 will match the $2.4bn sold in the first six months, according to Munich Re, Bloomberg reports.
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RSA Insurance Group has acquired 123 Money, a direct distributor of personal lines insurance products in Ireland. RSA will pay £54m for the online insurer.
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Standard & Poor's said today that it raised its counterparty credit rating on Arch Capital Group to A- from BBB+.
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Torus has hired Esther Fittinghoff as professional lines manager and Kurt Fleischmann as senior casualty underwriter.
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WellPoint has received net income of $722.4m in the second quarter 2010 as compared to $693.5m in the second quarter of 2009.
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Aetna received net income of $491m in the second quarter of 2010 as compared to $346.6m in the second quarter of 2009.
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Aflac received total revenues of $5bn in the second quarter of 2010 as compared with $4.3bn in the second quarter of 2009.
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Brit Insurance said Wednesday that it has opened its books to Apollo Management after the US private equity firm raised its takeover bid to £10.75 a share.
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Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance firm Aspen Insurance Holdings has reported net income in the second quarter of 2010 of $108.9m, compared with net income of $110.4m for the second quarter last year.
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Atradius has restructured its management board. Peter Ingenlath has been named chief market officer for the credit insurance business and for the outward re, Dutch state business, special products and global units.
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Catlin is the lead insurer for the Airblue passenger plane that crashed in Islamabad, Pakistan, insurance sources told Reactions.
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Don Magee, formerly the co-CEO of Global ReSpecialty and marine/energy with Graeme Moore, has been moved across to work with specialty reinsurance clients and different client relationships.
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A study by the Government Accountability Office into state regulation of risk retention groups has been welcomed by the National Risk Retention Association.
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The Italian insurance regulator is planning measures to cut high motor insurance premiums and lower the costs for providers, Reuters reports.
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Large losses sustained in the Gulf of Mexico will not have the same market-changing impact on the upstream energy insurance market as other events such as Hurricane Katrina, according to a new report published by Marsh.
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With such a diverse range of damages and costs, legal experts and attorneys have predicted the Deepwater Horizon disaster could be one of the most drawn-out and costly battles in US legal history, the Associated Press reports.
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Australian insurer QBE has appointed Steven Gransbury underwriting leader for its Specialty Accident & Health Division.
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Bermuda reinsurer, RenaissanceRe Holdings, has sold its entire share in ChannelRe Holdings for $15.8m.
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Joseph Taranto, CEO of Bermudian reinsurance firm Everest Re, will retire at the end of 2010. His successor was announced along with the firm's second-quarter results.
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Willis Group Holdings, the global insurance broker, today reported net income from continuing operations for the second quarter of 2010 of $89m compared with $87m in the same period a year ago.
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Zurich Financial Services Group has appointed four regional CEOs within its global life division for Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, North America and Latin America.
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US insurer Ace today reported net income for the second quarter of $677m, compared with $535m in the same period last year.
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AM Best has revised the outlook to positive from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating of A- and issuer credit ratings of “a-” of Lancashire Insurance Company in Bermuda and Lancashire Insurance Company in the UK.
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It is unlikely that the Aon broker who threw his laptop and memory sticks into a pond in an attempt to conceal the work he was doing from his former firm will face criminal charges or lose his role at the broking giant, Reactions can reveal.
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Axa Equitable Life Insurance has appointed David O’Leary as its executive vice-president .
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International insurance company, Ageas, is selling its pension and life activities in Turkey to BNP Paribas Assurance.
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Although it is early in the reporting season for US insurance firms second-quarter results, already it can be seen that catastrophe losses are hurting results. Both Chubb and Travelers have reported second-quarter catastrophe losses.
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Floridian homeowners insured by the Citizens Property Insurance will experience an average 10.2% rate hike next year if approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, reports the Palm Beach post.
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Endurance Specialty Holdings has reported net income of $58.6m for the second quarter of 2010 compared with net income of $149.1m in the second quarter of 2009.
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US broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co has reported a 2010 second quarter net earnings of $44.0m compared with $43.8m in the second quarter of 2009.
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G Thompson Hutton has decided to leave XL Group’s board of directors to start a new business focused on risk and insurance in renewable energy.
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Insurance Australia Group said that it expects to report a 50% fall in profits for the year to June 30 and has announced the departure of Neil Utley, the CEO of its ailing UK operation.
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Insurance broker Marsh has appointed Elizabeth Demaret as managing director and multinational client service director.
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Marsh has promoted Martin Clark as its global energy practice claims leader after only six months at the firm.
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Bermuda based RenaissanceRe Holdings has reported net income of $210.2m in the second quarter of 2010, compared with net income available $271.2m for the second quarter of 2009.
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Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) received net income of $127m in the second quarter of 2010 as compared to $153.2m in 2009.
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The US state of Rhode Island is reviewing the first-ever proposed discharge and liquidation of obligations of a solvent insurer in the US, according to law firm Morrison & Foerster.
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Global reinsurer Swiss Re has announced a first-of-its-kind agreement with the Alabama State Insurance Fund, to provide a three-year parametric insurance cover for the state's primary catastrophic hurricane exposure.
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AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A+ and issuer credit rating of “aa-” of The Toa Reinsurance Company in Japan.
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Verisk Analytics has launched its Verisk Catastrophe Index. The new service, which will provide highly granular loss estimates of insured property damage after catastrophes, is currently available for US hurricanes.
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Rating agency AM Best has assigned a financial strength rating and issuer credit ratings to China Reinsurance Group and its subsidiaries.
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Bermuda insurance and reinsurance group Arch Capital Group has reported a net income in the 2010 second quarter of $237.0m.
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U2 frontman Bono's has cost his insurers £11m ($17m) since suffering from a slipped disk during rehearsals, reports UK newspaper The Sun.
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The CEA, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, has written to the US House of Representatives to express its concerns over proposals to change the US tax treatment of reinsurance between affiliated entities.
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FBR Capital Markets has reduced the second quarter profit of U.S. home and auto insurer, Allstate, by more than half, Bloomberg reports.
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Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, along with other banks, sold protection to Goldman Sachs against a failure of AIG, Bloomberg reports.
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Guy Carpenter files suit against Lockton Re arising from a dispute over brokerage fees for placing reinsurance coverage, according to law firm.
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Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has signed an exclusive trading agreement with three European brokers, SIACI Saint Honore, Greco Group and Ecclesia Group, to expand its JLT International network in continental Europe and CIS countries.
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Kardan Financial Services (KFS) has sold its 40% shareholding in TBIH Financial Services Group to Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) for Eu126m.
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Montpelier Re Holdings, a Bermuda based provider of short-tail reinsurance and other specialty lines, has reported net income of $70m for the second quarter of 2010.
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Navigators Management Company, the principal underwriting agency subsidiary of Navigators Group, has introduced an enhanced suite of environmental liability coverage tailored specifically for contractors and consultants.
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Bermudian reinsurance firm PartnerRe today announced that Charles Goldie has been appointed head of specialty lines for PartnerRe Global, effective September 1.
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The Philippines has been hit by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake, Reuters reports. The quake struck 83 miles south southwest of Cotabato, Mindanao, according to the US Geological Survey.
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QBE Insurance’s first-half insurance profit margin missed the company’s target range. The Australian insurer has warned first half profit would decline 40% because of lower investment income.
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Towers Watson has named two senior vice-presidents, who joined the firm from Guy Carpenter and Munich Re America.
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Transatlantic Holdings, has reported net income of $111m for the second quarter of 2010 compared with $112m for the second quarter of 2009.
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WR Berkley Corporation has reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $110.2m compared with $97.4m for the second quarter of 2009.
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Lloyd’s insurer Beazley said first half pre-tax profit nearly quadrupled, boosted by a one-off foreign exchange gain and higher sales, which helped offset the competitive rate environment.
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Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has appointed its new president. The professional organisation has named Allianz general manager, Chris Hanks, as its new president.
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CNA Financial has appointed Robert Jirgal as senior vice-president of business process reengineering.
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Tropical Storm Bonnie could worsen the environmental toll of the oil spill as it crosses the southern Florida peninsula and enters the Gulf of Mexico early Saturday morning, according to catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
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Fairfax Financial will sell eight million preferred shares ‘Series G’ worth nearly $200m in Canada to a syndicate of underwriters.
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Hyatt Legal Plans, a subsidiary of MetLife, has bought Allstate’s group legal plans business. The Cleveland-based unit acquired Signature LegalCare for an undisclosed amount.
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MGIC Investment has appointed Mark Zandi to its board of directors. Zandi has joined the firm from Moody’s Analytics, where he was a chief economist.
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Resolution’s shareholders have approved the £2.75bn ($4.2bn) acquisition of Axa’s UK life operations, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Paris-based reinsurer Scor said property/casualty at the end of June have resulted in premium growth of 19%.
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A set of scribbled notes helped the head of AIG Financial Products unit avoid prosecution for deceiving investors on the state of AIG’s financial health in the run up to the $182bn US federal bailout in 2008, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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Tropical Storm Bonnie, the second named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, is threatening the coast of south Florida, RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Centre reports.
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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act should not have an immediate credit impact on ratings and could even help US insurance/reinsurance companies maintain their competitive positions in the global marketplace, according to S&P.
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AIG has appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as global coordinators for the IPO of its Asian life-insurance unit, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Axa Asia Pacific has posted results for its second quarter ending on June 30, 2010. The company’s operating earnings from south east Asia are expected to be nearly $33m in 2010 as compared to $17.2m in 2009.
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The plan to set up a state-owned insurer in Brazil has shifted the goalposts for international firms, says Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth.
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US insurance group The Chubb Corporation has reported net income in the second quarter of 2010 of $518m compared with $551m in the second quarter of 2009.
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Fidelity National Financial (FNF) has earned revenues of $1.5bn in the second quarter that ended June 30, 2010, down from $1.56bn in 2009.
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Spanish insurer Mapfre said Thursday that profits for the first half of 2010 fell 5.7% to Eu500.2m ($643.4m), owing to the parent company failing to reproduce the ‘extraordinary’ performance of 2009.
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Legislation that would have expanded the National Flood Insurance Program to include wind was pulled from a final vote by the US House of Representatives today.
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Scor Global’s property/casualty and specialty treaty renewals at end of June have resulted in premium growth of 19% at constant exchange rates.
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The Travelers Companies has cut its full-year profit outlook by 10 cents after posting a fall in second quarter income.
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Typhoon Chanthu is forecast to make landfall in the south of China today, bringing torrential rains to a country suffering its worst flooding in a decade, RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Centre reports.
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Leslie Margolin has quit from her role at US health insurer, WellPoint, The Wall Street Journal reports. She was acting as the president of the Anthem Blue Cross unit in California.
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Westcor Land Title Insurance (Westcor) has expanded its business to enter the New England market. Chris Strynar will head the team as the regional manager and Harold Clarke will be senior underwriter for New England.
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Admiral is seeking to expand its business into household insurance, Reuters reports. The UK car insurer is looking to make its first foray outside the motor market.
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The Asian life arm of AIG could get an outlook upgrade from Moody’s to stable from negative if the company successfully completes its IPO and generates consistent premium growth and profitability, according to Moody’s rating agency.
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Insurance broker Aon Corporation has announced it will start receiving contingent commissions again. Rims is not happy with the decision.
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Willis Group Holdings, the global insurance broker, has responded to the announcement by Aon Corporation that it would resume accepting contingent commissions “where appropriate and legally permissible”.
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Swiss insurance group Baloise has acquired the Belgian insurance business of Avéro, a subsidiary of the Dutch Eureko Group, making Baloise the sixth-largest non-life business in Belgium.
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Bowring Marsh, the specialist international placement broker at Marsh, has expanded its footprint in Asia with the opening in Hong Kong of its ninth office.
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Upstream broker lands in hot water after throwing laptop into a pond.
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Upstream broker lands in hot water after throwing laptop into a pond.
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CNA has named Michael Furlong as vice-president of underwriting for its specialty lines group. He will be responsible for the global insurer’s lawyers professional liability programme.
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D&O, together with E&O coverage and fiduciary liability constitute property/casualty insurers' most direct underwriting exposure to the financial crisis, according to rating agency Moody's.
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Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) has bolstered its insurance practice with a number of former Halliwells partners joining the firm in Manchester.
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The aviation division of Bermuda based insurer Ironshore has entered a treaty reinsurance program with the Starr Group to provide protection against commercial satellite risk.
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MGIC Investment’s net income for the quarter ended June 30, 2010 was $24.6m as compared with a net loss of $339.8m for the same quarter in 2009.
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Kiln, the international insurance and reinsurance underwriting group, has announced two appointments in Asia.
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The Dodd-Frank bill was signed into law today. PCI has urged a careful approach to adding federal oversight to the state-based insurance regulatory system with the creation of a Federal Insurance Office.
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RSA has appointed Derek Walsh as its new general counsel, with effect from July 19, 2010.
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Towers Watson has appointed Sean McDermott as director of property/casualty (P/C) consulting services.
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UnitedHealth Group has received revenues of $23.3bn in the second quarter of 2010. The firm reported earnings from operations to be $1.9bn and net earnings to be $1.1bn in the second quarter of 2010.
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Western Provident Association (WPA) has appointed Northern Trust to act as its global custodian.
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Ace Group has made two promotions in its European claims team.
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American International Group’s Asian life insurance arm has begun talks with investors as it seeks backing for a potential break up from its American parent, reports the Financial Times.
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Allied World Assurance Company Holdings announced today that approval has been received from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Lloyd's Asia to register and operate a service company, Capita 2232 Services Pte. Ltd.
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CIGNA International has appointed Jason Sadler as CEO of the Health, Life & Accident operations.
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Fitch Ratings has boosted the outlook on Allianz’s ratings to stable from negative.
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The German Ambassador to the US, Klaus Scharioth, has sent a letter to the US House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Sandy Levin, registering the opposition of the German government to the Neal bill.
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Guarantee Insurance Company has appointed Chris Rhoden as underwriter, alternative markets.
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In an era of increasingly frequent, costly and uncertain litigation in the insurance and reinsurance industry, mediation offers a relatively inexpensive way for parties to resolve disputes, according to Katherine Billingham and Peter Scarpato, the CEO and president respectively of the Re/insurance Mediation Institute.
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Ironshore has appointed Rod Todd as head of the Lloyd’s property operation.
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This year looks to be a difficult one for Lloyd's of London. However, a stable outlook rating from Fitch indicates the insurance and reinsurance group can cope with what lies ahead.
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QBE has hired Maureen Robertson as new head of its business in Scotland,
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International insurance regulators have admitted that they are losing track of where insurance and reinsurance companies are headquartered. A spokesman for the Insurance and Mutual Assurers Supervisory Society said that many companies are changing their domiciles so frequently it is becoming difficult to know who is based where anymore.
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The International Association of Reinsurers and Insurers has finally succeeded in placing a temporary cap on stories about a continuing soft market. For the past few months, rumours and reports about a never-ending soft market have been leaking to the press, seriously damaging the insurance sector’s attempts to talk the market up.
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The recent Global Insurance and Reinsurance Chief Executives' Forum, which took place in June and July in South Africa, saw some lively debate and free-flowing dialogue, until controversy erupted over magic markers and French in-fighting.
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RISKbitz reveals the insurance and reinsurance videos being ignored on YouTube.
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Excess capacity chasing market share in the commercial property/casualty marketplace has resulted in another quarter of declining renewal pricing, according to the CIAB second-quarter Commercial P/C Market Index Survey.
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AIG is expected to appoint Mark Tucker as head of its Asian business, The Independent reports. He will succeed Mark Wilson and will lead the group through its planned IPO.
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Catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide has released its latest US hurricane model, including updates to the hazard and vulnerability components of the model.
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Bank of America is planning to offload the insurance unit it took over in the purchase of Countrywide Financial, Bloomberg reports.
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The Aon/Hewitt transaction announced last week is the latest in a long run of acquisitions in the insurance brokerage market. This trend looks set to continue, according to rating agency Moody’s.
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US insurance brokerage firm Brown & Brown has reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 of $41.2m.
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Recommendations by Ceiops on the assessment of the regulatory equivalence of non-EU countries could hit European insurers with subsidiaries in the US and Asia, Moody’s has warned.
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Chaucer Holdings has opened a new office in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to access facultative property and related risks in Latin America on behalf of Chaucer Syndicate 1084.
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Insurance broker Aon has signed a four year shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United football club, replacing AIG. Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth, says he hopes they know what they are doing.
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Action over Solvency II is picking up as the 2012 deadline looms, such as Ceiops last week naming Switzerland, Bermuda and Japan as leading contenders for the first round of EU equivalency testing. In recent weeks a series of papers and letters have also given clarification on capital requirements and supervisor readiness. Reactions asks what it all means.
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The Chinese southwest Sichuan Province has been hit by heavy rains causing floods in the area, Bloomberg reports.
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Ensco has been added by Greenlight Capital Re as one of its six biggest holdings, Bloomberg reports. On June 30, the offshore oil driller joined the list of Greenlight’s biggest investments.
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Nick Starling, head of general insurance at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), was left in a tricky situation at an industry conference last week, following the unexpected departure of the group’s chief executive.
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Insurance and reinsurance broker Miller has made a number of senior appointments to its reinsurance business unit.
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US specialty insurance company The Navigators Group has announced that its wholly-owned syndicate, Navigators Syndicate 1221 at Lloyd’s of London, is the latest to co-locate with Lloyd’s in Rio de Janeiro by appointing a local representative.
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RMS has updated its US Terrorism Risk Model to include places of worship, and the cities of Dallas in Texas and Jersey City in New Jersey have been upgraded in their threat. Overall, the expected annual insured loss in the US for 2010 was cut by 12%.
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Securities lawsuit filings increased 30% in the second quarter. However, those related to the credit crisis have fallen compared to 2008 and 2009, according to a new report by Advisen and sponsored by US insurer Ace.
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The Brazilian government’s plan to create a state-owned insurer would be a negative credit development for some of Brazil’s private market insurers and could have negative implications for the insurance market’s development.
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Two strong earthquakes struck off the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on July 18, The Associated Press reports.
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AIG and Citigroup told the Securities and Exchange Commission that they classified over $25bn of repurchase agreements and securities lending transactions as sales since 2007, Bloomberg reports.
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Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray has announced a $725m securities class action settlement against AIG and certain individual directors and officers.
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Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development centre, has launched the first fully functional Asian typhoon model to span the continent.
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CNinsure has closed its public offering of 4.6m American depositary shares (ADS), each representing 20 ordinary shares of the company.
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Chilean state oil and gas company, Empresa Nacional del Petroleo (Enap), will see smaller quake related losses, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Air Lease (ALC) has secured initial financing of $3.3bn. The new aircraft leasing company was launched by chairman and CEO, Steven Udvar-Hazy, who co-founded and led International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) and John Plueger, president and COO of ALC.
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Fitch Ratings has affirmed the AA- insurer financial strength rating of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, and has revised the outlook to stable from negative.
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As CEO of the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA) Dave Matcham is the voice of the company market – and he’s never been busier.
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Miller Insurance Services has launched a white paper to spark debate about how buyers of insurance can derive maximum value from their brokers.
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National Australia Bank is seeking a second extension to secure regulatory approval for its $11.7bn deal for Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, Bloomberg reports.
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ProSight Specialty Insurance will buy NYMagic for $230m, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Torus Executive Risks, the joint venture between Nexus Underwriting Management and global specialty insurer Torus, has entered the professional lines market.
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The proposed scrapping of the Financial Services Authority has worried the UK insurance industry.
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Ace UK has announced the appointment of Matthew Shaw as president, Ace Global Markets (AGM) and active underwriter for Syndicate 2488.
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Legal insurer ARAG has appointed David Bledsoe as director of business development.
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The insurance arm of Bermudian insurance and reinsurance firm Axis Capital has formed a design professionals and environmental liability unit.
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The value of insurance-linked securities (ILS) listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) has reached more than $1bn.
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CNA Financial has said it has struck an agreement to transfer its legacy asbestos and environmental pollution liabilities to Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity Company.
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The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act financial services regulatory reform legislation has been passed. Trade groups expressed approval of the act, which includes long-awaited surplus lines reform.
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Fitch Ratings has provided an issuer default rating (IDR) of ‘BBB’ and senior debt rating of BBB to CNA Financial.
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Arthur J Gallagher & Co, an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, today announced that it has entered into a $500m unsecured credit facility.
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Harvey Golub, chairman of American International Group (AIG), has quit the US insurer after clashing with CEO Robert Benmosche.
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The Hanover Insurance Group has appointed 20 specialised ICW Group surety underwriters and field support staff.
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Bermuda based property/casualty insurer Ironshore has named new management appointments in its global and US property operations following John Murphy’s announcement of his retirement from global head of worldwide property.
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Kerrie Kelly is stepping down from her role as director general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) to return to Australia for personal reasons.
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Lloyd’s was once reviled for its Byzantine systems - but now it is leading the way with the new Lloyd's Exchange project. Progress on the Claims Transformation Project is also continuing apace.
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Insurance broker Marsh has launched a new global rail practice and appointed three industry veterans to lead it.
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The US House has passed the Flood Insurance Reform and Priorities Act of 2010 – legislation that will extend that National Flood Insurance Program for five years.
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Progressive reported a 15% drop in profit on investment losses, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Sentry Insurance has appointed Peter McPartland as president and COO, The Business Journal reports. He will be joining in August and will be based in Stevens Point.
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Ace Group’s US-based retail operating division, Ace USA, has set up a specialised underwriting unit to meet the insurance needs of the rapidly developing renewable energy market.
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Argo Group International Holdings expects to report around $20m to $25m of pre-tax cat loss provisions, net of reinsurance and reinstatement premium, for the second quarter of 2010.
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Berkshire Hathaway scaled back its most unusual and risky insurance policies as prices declined and the company prepared for its biggest acquisition, Bloomberg reports.
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The 16 private insurance companies that participate in a US federal crop insurance programme have agreed to a plan to cut their subsidies by $6bn over the next 10 years.
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Essent Guaranty’s parent company, Essent Group, has secured an additional $100m in capital commitments from investors.
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Once the epitome of old school insurance, the Lloyd’s model now looks so modern it has spawned an imitation. We ask what the market’s strategy for the near future is.
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Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter today announced the appointment of the head of its London-based marine and energy practice with effect from August 16 2010.
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Lord Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s of London, has warned against protectionist measures being used to slow the pace of globalisation as a result of the financial crisis.
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US specialty insurer Markel Corporation and Aspen Holdings have entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition by Markel of subsidiary Aspen, a privately held insurance group.
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The US House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee has held a hearing on the taxation of reinsurance between affiliated entities.
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Pacific Life Re and Rothesay Life have completed a longevity reinsurance agreement.
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European catastrophe insurance data provider Perils has reported that total placements of insurance risk transactions based on its industry loss index exceeded $250m in the first half of the year.
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Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has started a £5bn restructuring process of its insurance arm, The Telegraph reports.
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RSA has appointed Soledad Vitale as a renewable energy underwriter.
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Transamerica Reinsurance has appointed Alfonso Lombao as managing director for its Latin American business.
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AM Best has assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and an issuer credit rating of “a-” to Kuwait Reinsurance Company. The outlook assigned to both ratings is stable.
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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) has released two further papers detailing its plans to recalibrate insurance industry capital standards for the country’s life and non-life insurance companies, Reactions’ sister website InsuranceCapitalRisk.com reports.
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A $325m reserve financing transaction has closed between two principal life and annuity operating subsidiaries of Aviva USA Corporation and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank.
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Credit Suisse is urging a New York judge to dismiss an Ambac Financial Group lawsuit related to mortgage-backed securities transactions, Bloomberg reports.
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Endurance Specialty Holdings has hired Gene Mason as senior president and head of professional lines for its US wholesale insurance division.
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The investment firm managed by Bruce Berkowitz has increased its share in AIG, Bloomberg reports.
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AIG has received approaches from four Chinese consortiums for its Asian insurance division, AIA Group, South China Morning Post reports.
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Global Indemnity has appointed James Crystal as a director on the board. Crystal is chairman and CEO of insurance brokerage Frank Crystal & Company.
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The Hartford Financial Services Group, the insurance and wealth management company, has appointed Hedley Blane as chief underwriting officer of the company’s subsidiary, Hartford Financial Products International
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The increase in mortality rates for UK adults is expected to slow compared to the last 30 years, meaning life insurers may be overestimating longevity risk, Risk Management Solutions has said.
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Underwriters face a big challenge assessing the risk to a film project that uses celebrities that have got into trouble.
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Brit Insurance has appointed Tom Taylor as liability portfolio management underwriter in its London office. Reporting to Jamie McNab, UK portfolio manager for liability, he takes up his position immediately.
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Lloyd’s remains the “go to” market for unusual, hard to place risks. Lloyd’s is famous for insuring the unusual all over the world. But these headline-grabbing policies mask the real value of the market – its ability to insure difficult or emerging risks.
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The Hartford Financial Services Group, the US insurance and wealth management company, has announced that Gail McGovern has decided to resign from The Hartford’s board of directors.
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Munich Re has restructured its US-based specialty primary insurance operations. The German insurer has combined the management teams of Hartford Steam Boiler and the specialty insurance division.
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Bermuda-based global reinsurer PartnerRe has successfully concluded the voluntary severance plan for Paris-based employees related to the company’s acquisition of Paris Re in 2009.
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The takaful and retakaful market is likely to continue to grow in 2010, according to a new report from rating agency Standard & Poor’s. The market provides Islamic insurance compliant with Sharia law.
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US property/casualty insurer Hanover Insurance Group has announced estimated second-quarter losses from catastrophes of approximately $85m.
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Industry research conducted by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has revealed that lateness is the most frequently used reason by insurers for not paying a claim.
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Insurers received a break last month when the US bill “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” preserved the role of state insurance regulators, but according to Deloitte there are still areas of the act involving consumer protection and measures to “de-risk” the financial system that will have broad implications for insurers.
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The US property/casualty insurance industry’s profits increased to $11.5bn from a loss of $900m in the first quarter of 2010 despite an unusually high level of natural catastrophe losses.
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Zurich in North America, part of the global insurance-based financial services provider Zurich Financial Services Group, has named Sean Dalton head of marine for Global Corporate in North America business unit.
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Aon, the world’s largest insurance broker, has announced that it will buy human resources consulting and outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates to expand its consulting operations.
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Albert Benchimol, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of PartnerRe, is set to retire from the firm, effective December 31, 2010.
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Berkshire Hathaway may post an $800m writedown related to asset drops in the second quarter, a Stifel Nicolaus & Company analyst told Bloomberg.
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The latest developments on Solvency II have shown regulators are commited to a technical approach. This is good news, says Reactions’ European editor Adrian Ladbury, because the last thing that is needed is a bunch of supervisors playing politics.
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The London market likes a scrap – which is just as well. It has plenty to fight over, such as Solvency II, the new UK coalition government and tax concerns.
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Fireman’s Fund Insurance has decided to increase its reserves for asbestos and environmental risks.
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Fitch Ratings has revised American International Group (AIG)’s rating outlook to stable from evolving, reflecting Fitch's view that AIG's re-structuring plan and improving capital market conditions have increased the strength of the company.
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Island Insurance has appointed Lyle Harada as vice-president of its claims unit. Harada will be responsible for the strategic planning, development and management of all claims functions.
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Liberty Mutual Insurance has sued Goldman Sachs for fraudulently misleading it into buying preferred stock of mortgage financier, Fannie Mae, Reuters reports.
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Moody's has affirmed the Baa2 senior unsecured debt ratings of Aon Corporation and changed the rating outlook to negative from stable following the announcement that Aon plans to acquire the human resource consulting firm Hewitt Associates.
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QBE has promoted Petko Tonchev to general manager for central and eastern Europe, while Felix Jenny will take up the interim position of general manager of QBE's German operation.
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Sompo Japan Insurance plans to establish a local unit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this October to expand its reinsurance business into south east Asia and the Middle East, Nikkei reports.
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Taiwan's insurance regulator may issue rules letting local insurers invest in Chinese securities, Bloomberg reports.
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Panellists at S&P’s annual UK Insurance Symposium were particularly gloomy about the prospects of a turn in the underwriting cycle.
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Aegon has raised Eu1bn from a sale of Class A residential mortgage-backed securities, Reuters reports. The Dutch insurer is looking to use the proceeds to finance a part of its existing Dutch mortgage portfolio.
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Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America has appointed Debra Repya as the new senior director of advanced markets.
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AM Best has affirmed the ratings of TD Reinsurance (Barbados). The firm has given the financial strength rating of A and issuer credit rating of a. The outlook of the ratings is stable.
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Brit Insurance has appointed Denon Ambris as liability underwriter in its Birmingham office. Ambris will be reporting to Rosie O’Gara, central and south west regional manager.
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German reinsurance firm Munich Re has completed a catastrophe bond on behalf of the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association.
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The world’s largest independent global wholesale and reinsurance broker was created today following the completion of a deal to combine Swett & Crawford, oldest independent wholesale broker in the US, and Cooper Gay.
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The combined impact of lower insurance costs and lower risk management administrative costs led to a 3.1% drop in average total cost of risk (TCOR) per $1,000 of revenue in 2009, according to Rims.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has appointed David Law as the new global insurance leader, succeeding Ian Dilks who is now global head of public policy and regulatory matters.
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Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s of London is set to spearhead a new banking venture that will compete to buy government-backed assets such as Northern Rock and a portfolio of branches of Lloyds Banking Group, the Financial Times report.
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The New York Insurance Department will hold a public hearing on August 20 to explore the possibility of increasing insurance capacity in New York by easing unauthorised insurers’ access to excess and surplus lines.
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Sterling Life Insurance has appointed David Goltz as its new CFO. Goltz has been the finance chief of Fidelis Senior Care for the last five years.
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The Ace Group of insurance and reinsurance companies has appointed David Furby as division president, commercial property/casualty, for Ace’s overseas general operations.
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Standard & Poor’s has announced it will add the property/casualty insurer to its S&P 500 stock index after close of trading on July 14, reports Reuters.
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Aviation insurance looks set to deliver strong returns in 2010 for the first time in four years. However the line remains fragile and a single loss could lead to a dramatic change, according to an Aon report.
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Axis Global Accident & Health, a division of Axis Capital Holdings, will now write accident and specialty health reinsurance cover from Ireland and the UK, complementing its existing offerings in the US.
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Aegon has appointed Bank of America as adviser, Reuters reports. The bank will advise the Dutch insurer on the sale of its US reinsurance unit, Transamerica Reinsurance.
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Brokers are now more positive about conducting business at Lloyd’s than two years ago, according to an independent study by Gracechurch Consulting.
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The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned three individuals from working in regulated financial services after they were found guilty of a £2m ($3m)fraud.
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Guardian Life Insurance Company of America is purchasing a non-controlling interest in Lowe’s investment management subsidiary, Lowe Enterprises Investors.
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QBE Insurance Group has appointed Robert Byler as president and head of programme business for its Americas division based in New York.
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The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (Ceiops), a committee of all Europe's national insurance regulators, has warned that more work in needed to get supervisors up to speed for the implementation of Solvency II.
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The Ace Group of insurance and reinsurance companies has appointed six additional global client executives: Jeff Carr and Shaun Edwards in London, Olivier Roussel in Paris, Wolfgang Ruffert in Frankfurt, Andrea Pearson in Los Angeles and Karen Sawyer in New York.
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AM Best has given the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of a+ to Lloyd’s of London and Lloyd’s Reinsurance Company (China).
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After receiving approval as an admitted reinsurer in Brazil, Ariel Reinsurance Company, a Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company, is planning to open a representative office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Aspen US Insurance has announced the formation of a new management liability team led by Fred Cooper, who will serve as executive vice-president and chief directors’ and officers’ underwriter.
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The global property/casualty insurer Chartis has announced a new organisational structure for the EEA countries and Switzerland, in preparation for the pan-European demands of incoming Solvency II regulation.
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Chaucer Syndicate 1084 has signed a new energy partnership with ScandIns (Scandinavian Insurance Management Company) to write Scandinavian marine risks.
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CNinsure will acquire an additional 45% equity stake in Henan Zhongrui Insurance Agency.
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The news that Catlin is to set up shop in Zurich has been headlined as a Solvency II story. But, wonders Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth, is this really a Bermuda story?
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The first half of 2010 natural catastrophe losses have exceeded the total for 2009, according to Munich Re.
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Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) Asia has appointed Doug White as managing director of its north Asia business.
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Korea National Insurance Corporation (KNIC) has rubbished recently-published allegations of reinsurance fraud which it claims are “completely untrue and without foundation”.
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Moody's has affirmed the Ba2 long-term issuer rating of First Mercury Financial Corporation and the Baa2 insurance financial strength rating of First Mercury Insurance Company following its acquisition of Valiant from Ariel Holdings.
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A US judge has thrown out the bid-rigging convictions of two former Marsh & McLennan Company (MMC) executives, reports Reuters.
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Ahead of mid-year reinsurance treaty renewals, rates for US property/casualty business continued to decline, according to MarketScout.
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Sun Life Trustee has appointed RBC Dexia Investor Services to provide custodian and fund administration services.
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The Taipei City government has blocked four Primus Nan-Shan Holding board members from serving as directors, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia has signed an agreement with commercial bank RHB Bank.
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A US federal judge has authorised for AIG to pursue a lawsuit that accuses its rivals of illegally conspiring to cause AIG harm in the workers compensation market, Reuters reports.
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The plane leasing unit of AIG is in talks to buy jets for the first time since 2007, Bloomberg reports.
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Axa has inked a deal to buy the private equity business of Natixis for Eu534m, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Chinatrust Financial Holding is looking to buy the Taiwanese life-insurance operations of AIG, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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The CIRC has granted approval for the China based subsidiary of US insurance group The Chubb Corporation to establish a branch in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.
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Hiscox, has secured a $750m syndicated three-year revolving credit and letter of credit facility.
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Tokio Marine yesterday announced plans to expand its international reinsurance and large commercial property operations. Tatsuhiko Hoshina, president and CEO of Tokio Millennium Re, says...
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Several flood and severe weather events in China, Brazil, the US, and parts of Central Europe caused billions of dollars of economic losses in June according to an Aon Benfield report.
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Lloyds Banking Group shareholders are pressurising the firm to sell its Scottish Widows insurance unit, The Guardian reports.
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Photos from the Reactions London Market Awards Dinner 2010, which took place at the Grange City Hotel on June 30, are now available for free download.
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Bermuda-based reinsurer Maiden Holdings is to acquire the majority of the reinsurance-related infrastructure, assets and liabilities of UK-based GMAC International Insurance Services.
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Phoenix Group is seeking to raise money from its £10bn book of annuity policies, Financial Times reports.
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David Wright, deputy director general, Internal Market and Services, at the EC has written to Gabriel Bernardino, chair of Ceiops, asking the agency to run the fifth quantitative impact study, Reactions sister publication Insurancecapitalrisk.com reports.
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US corporate risk managers are reporting a serious and growing detachment between themselves and their insurance brokers and carriers, according to strategy management research firm Greenwich Associates.
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Ace International has appointed Perrine Kalina to the new role of engineering coordinator and assistant underwriter to its environmental risk team.
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Argo International, a specialist Lloyd’s insurer and subsidiary of Argo Group International, has appointed Tony Cabot to support its active international growth strategy.
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Aviva is expecting to boost its capital to £1.3bn in 2010, the Financial Times reports. The UK insurer's life insurance business may generate £33bn over the next 20 years.
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BP, the UK oil company at the heart of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, last month asked Anadarko Petroleum and Mitsui Oil Exploration Company of Japan, to pay $383m out of around $1bn in cleanup costs for the well in May, the New York Times reported.
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Connecticut is probing a large security breach that occurred at US health insurer WellPoint, Bloomberg reports.
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Equitable Life Assurance Society has signed an outsourcing deal with asset manager BlackRock.
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Fremch mutual insurer Groupama is planning an initial public offfering of its stock in 2011 or 2012, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Lloyd's of London is curbing cover for petroleum shipments to Iran, the Financial Times reports.
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Property/casualty trade groups have praised the passing of the House passage of the “Dodd-Frank” Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173), especially now that the $19bn bank tax, which would have effected the largest p/c companies, has been scrapped.
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Australian insurer QBE is to acquire Secura, a Belgian-based specialist reinsurer for Eu267m ($334m), which will be funded from internal resources.
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Tokio Marine has announced plans to expand its international reinsurance and large commercial property operations, part of an ongoing strategy to increase its international presence and capital efficiency.
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Munich Re’s operating profit may fall to Eu895m in the second quarter of 2010 as compared to Eu1.37bn in the second quarter of 2009, Bloomberg reports.
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AIG is looking at a sale of its two Japanese life insurance companies for nearly $5bn, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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All 16 members of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) have renewed their policies for hurricane and earthquake coverage for the 2010/11 year beginning on 1 June – the start of the hurricane season.
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Allianz is seeking a higher contribution from global business lines in the mid-term, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Brown & Brown of South Carolina has purchased Commonwealth Insurance Group.
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Robert Benmosche, American International Group’s (AIG) CEO, has threatened to quit following a deep rift with Harvey Golub, the company’s government controlled chairman, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Mark Watson, CEO of Argo Group, gives his thoughts on the future of Bermuda.
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Shares in Brit Insurance jumped in morning trading on the London Stock Exchange after the Lloyd’s insurer rejected an improved takeover proposal from US private equity firm Apollo.
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First Mercury Financial will acquire Valiant Insurance Group. The insurer will purchase the subsidiary of Ariel Holdings for an amount equal to Valiant’s tangible book value, which is around $55m.
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Ageas, formerly known as Fotis, is to acquire Kwik-Fit Insurance Services for £215m ($326m) . The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010 subject to regulatory approval.
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AIR Worldwide (AIR) estimates that insurable losses from Hurricane Alex are not expected to exceed $200m.
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QBE the Americas has completed the takeover of NAU Country Insurance, a writer of crop insurance business based in Ramsey, Minnesota.
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OneBeacon Insurance Group has completed the sale of its traditional personal lines business to Tower Group.
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Allianz has set up its wholly-owned subsidiary in property and casualty insurance in China, Shanghai Daily reports.
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The ratings of CIBC Reinsurance have been affirmed by AM Best. The reinsurer’s financial strength rating has been affirmed to A and its issuer credit rating to a. The outlook for both ratings is stable.
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Amlin has appointed James Farquhar as leading class underwriter, specie. He will develop the account along with class underwriter, Rod Little.
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Patrick Thiele, president and CEO of reinsurance firm PartnerRe, gives his thoughts on the future of Bermuda.
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Lloyd’s insurer Canopius Group has acquired the business of KGM Underwriting Agencies for an undisclosed fee.
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Insurance industry first half and second quarter debt and equity issuance and the top ten bookrunners in 2010 have now been published in Reactions specialist data section in partnership with Thomson Reuters.
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Joseph Cassano, the former head of American International Group Financial Products, the unit that nearly crippled the US insurer, has testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
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Hurricane Alex made landfall along the coast of northeastern Mexico as a category 2 hurricane in the early hours of this morning, RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Centre reports.
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Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has calculated there is around a 16% chance that a tropical storm or hurricane will pass within 100 miles of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig before the end of July, rising to more than 40% by the end of August.
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Kingsway Financial Services has appointed Larry Swets as CEO and president. He was formerly executive vice-president of corporate development at the US automobile insurer.
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The winners of the Reactions London Market Awards 2010 were announced on June 30 at a gala dinner at the Grange City Hotel. The awards – sponsored by Guy Carpenter and RSA – recognise the best insurance, reinsurance and broking teams in the London insurance market, as well as service providers and individual awards.
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Reinsurance rates continued to erode at the July 1, 2010 reinsurance renewal despite severe catastrophe losses during the first half of 2010, Guy Carpenter and Willis Re have said.
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The Supreme Court has struck down part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, saying that a section of the law, enacted after the corporate governance scandals of the early 2000s, violates the constitution's separation of powers mandate.
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SBI Holdings will acquire a 7.65% interest in Chinese auto insurance provider, Tianan Insurance, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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The US Senate has approved legislation passed by the House last week that reauthorises the National Flood Insurance Programme (NFIP) until September.
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Standard Chartered Bank has signed a deal with Allianz Takaful, Gulf Times reports. The UK bank will sell insurance products for the German insurer’s Islamic unit in Qatar.
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Starr Technical Risks Agency has appointed Ronald Berler as vice-president and manager of its renewable energy division.
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This year evidence has been mounting that reinsurance firms with higher financial strength ratings are pushing to charge higher prices than their lower-rated rivals.
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The winners of the Reactions London Market Awards 2010 were announced on June 30 at a gala dinner at the Grange City Hotel. The awards – sponsored by Guy Carpenter and RSA – recognise the best insurance, reinsurance and broking teams in the London insurance market, as well as service providers and individual awards.
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The winners of the Reactions London Market Awards 2010 were announced on June 30 at a gala dinner at the Grange City Hotel. The awards – sponsored by Guy Carpenter and RSA – recognise the best insurance, reinsurance and broking teams in the London insurance market, as well as service providers and individual awards.
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XL Group, the insurance and reinsurance firm, has completed its previously announced redomestication to change the parent holding company's place of incorporation to Ireland from the Cayman Islands.
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June
AIG has appointed David DeMuro as head of its compliance and regulatory affairs, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Aviva has appointed Robert Lough as director of strategy and business development. He will report to Andrea Moneta, CEO of Aviva EMEA and will join the European executive committee.
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George Rivaz, CEO of insurance and reinsurance firm Ariel Holdings, gives his thoughts on the future of Bermuda.
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CNA Financial has officially opened its latest branch office in Los Angeles. The commercial insurer has named Connie Taylor, recently appointed branch vice president, to head the new office.
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In $
Source: Swiss Re
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In $
Source: Swiss Re
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In $
Source: Swiss Re
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Source: Swiss Re
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The Dubai Financial Services Authority has awarded a licence to Munich Re Underwriting Agents to operate in Dubai, Mondovisione reports.
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There are signs that tort inflation may be returning in the US as businesses anticipate more legal disputes, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
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QBE has announced the merger of its direct and reinsurance personal accident teams to create a single London market unit with combined gross written premiums of £45m ($68m), operating out of Lloyd’s.
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Solvency II will boost the importance of reinsurance by proving its value as an efficient form of capital, according to an Aon Benfield report.
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The Symetra Financial board of directors has appointed Peter Burgess as director. He will be a part of the board’s Audit and Finance Committees, effective June 25, 2010.
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US insurance-based financial services company has named David Levenson president of wealth management, effective July 1. John Walters, president of Hartford Life, will leave The Hartford at the end of July to pursue other opportunities.
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Troprical storm Alex has become the first hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, and the first June hurricane since 1995.
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The US Senate and House conference on financial services reform will reconvene following Republican objections to the $19bn tax that has been included in the financial reform bill.
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Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of global broker Willis Group Holdings has named James Byng property resource group leader for its international and specialty reinsurance business.
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World insurance premium volume fell 1.1% on an inflation-adjusted basis in 2009, yet industry capital improved, according to Swiss Re’s World insurance in 2009 sigma study.
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The Abu Dhabi government has introduced a law on the Islamic insurance system to regulate the work of Islamic insurers in the country, Zawya reports.
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Evan Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Ace Limited, has commended the Obama Administration’s commitment to advance the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
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Aflac has sold its Greek sovereign debt holdings and cut exposure to hybrid securities, Reuters reports. The supplemental disability insurer has sold its entire holdings of Greek debt, totalling $270m of par value.
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Tropical storm Alex is continuing to track towards the Mexico/Texas border area and is forecast to reach hurricane status later today, reports the RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Center.
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Catlin’s decision to launch a Switzerland-based reinsurer to expand its European-based reinsurance business has some confusing elements, an analyst has told Reactions.
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Aviva will look to takeover Prudential’s UK arm if it decides to break itself up or sell its British, Asian and US operations, UK newspaper The Guardian reports.
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Axis Capital Holdings has appointed Alfred Drowne as senior vice-president, business development, based in New York.
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Michael McGavick, CEO of insurance and reinsurance firm XL Capital, gives his thoughts on the future of Bermuda.
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Catlin Group is to launch a Switzerland-based reinsurer to expand the European-based reinsurance business underwritten by the Lloyd’s insurer.
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Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox plans to reduce the capacity for its flagship syndicate, Syndicate 33, to £900m ($1.4bn) for 2011, a 10% reduction from the £1bn level in 2010.
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Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) may boost investments in stocks and bonds by about 4% in the fiscal year of 2010, adds Bloomberg.
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Sanlam will team up with First Bank of Nigeria to sell insurance products in the west African nation, Bloomberg reports.
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Some myths about how climate change will affect the insurance and reinsurance industry were debunked during a recent presentation from a National Hurricane Center scientist.
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Zurich North America Commercial has raised the available capacity for its specialty errors & omissions business from $10m to $25m and removed revenue restrictions for primary business.
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A New York judge has signed an order approving the amended settlement of up to $712.5m reached among the WTC Captive Insurance Company, contractors, their subcontractors, and attorneys for more than 10,000 plaintiffs alleging injuries from the World Trade Centre site operations.
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Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, could intensify to become a hurricane within 48 hours, RMS/Reactions Catastrophe Centre reports.
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Aviva has appointed Steve Treloar as retail director for the UK general insurance business. He will report to UK general insurance CEO, David McMillan, effective November.
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Marty Becker, president and CEO of insurance and reinsurance firm Alterra, gives his thoughts on the future of Bermuda.
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UK oil company BP and Transocean, which owns the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, are set to clash over a £470m ($707m) insurance claim, the Mail on Sunday reports, without citing sources.
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Joseph Cassano, the former CEO of American International Group Financial Products (AIGFP), the unit that nearly brought down the insurer in September 2008, is to testify before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission later this week.
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China Strategic has dropped its share-swap agreement with Chinatrust Financial, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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The sale of American International Group’s Nan Shan unit in Taiwan has hit another wall as the deal’s biggest backer pulled out of the deal, the Financial Times reports.
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The Coalition for Competitive Insurance Rates (CCIR) has fought back against a Neal Bill YouTube rebuttal released by the Coalition for a Domestic Insurance Industry (CDII), claiming it contains “inaccurate and misleading” statements.
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Given that litigation costs are often ultimately picked up by reinsurers, it is crucial for them to understand the changing litigation landscape to accurately assess their risks and exposures.
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Prudential Financial has raised £150m to invest in European commercial real estate debt, Bloomberg reports.
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Standard & Poor's has lowered its counterparty credit rating, insurer financial strength rating, and financial enhancement rating on Switzerland-based Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) and related subsidiaries to AA- from AA.
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Sanlam is planning to spend $197m for expansion purposes in Africa and India, Bloomberg reports.
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Senator Charles Grassley is seeking more details from AIG about an exit package the insurer paid to its former chief compliance and regulatory officer in late 2009, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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The June 2010 issue of Reactions is now online. Click through to read a selection of articles.
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As tropical storm Alex grows strong in the Gulf of Mexico, catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide expects it could become a hurricane and make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in northern Mexico, but should miss the oil slick in the Gulf.
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Ace Global Markets will start a new US political risk and credit unit based in Los Angeles. Ray Tizabi, new vice-president, trade credit, will head the office serving the west coast region.
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The failed $35.5bn sale of AIA, the Asian life insurer of American International Group, to Prudential has caused a rift between AIG’s chairman and CEO, reports the Financial Times citing people close to the situation.
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The CEA, the European insurance and reinsurance federation, has called on the G-20 to distinguish between insurers and banks when designing regulatory initiatives to respond to the global financial crisis.
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The likely establishment of a federal insurance office within a regulatory overhaul of financial institutions in the US may lead to collateral rules for non-US reinsurers eventually being relaxed at a federal level, believes Lloyd’s of London.
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Malta’s market sees opportunities amid the big European threats.
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Manulife Financial may consider tendering an offer for AIA Group to expand its insurance business in Asia, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Pan-American Life Insurance Group’s unit has received approval to start its operations in Costa Rica.
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Penn Mutual Life Insurance has raised $200m in debt issue, Reuters reports. The insurer sold surplus notes in the 144a private placement market.
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John Tiner, CEO of UK buyout vehicle Resolution, plans to nearly double the size of the firm’s insurance business following the £2.75bn ($4.1bn) acquisition of Axa’s UK life and pensions operations, reports The Independent.
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Mega Broker, the world’s premier doomsayer, intermediary and capital adviser, has launched its report ‘We’re All Going To Die and Our Stuff Destroyed to Hell’ in conjunction with the Mega Broker Risk R&D Centre (MBRR&DC) in a joint venture with Llandudno College of Further Education.
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A bottle-nosed dolphin has been appointed chief underwriting officer of Lloyd’s Managing Agent Luddite Agencies Ltd.
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The conference committee on financial services regulatory reform has finished negotiations on HR 4173, which will be known as the “Dodd-Frank Act”. Initial trade group reaction is that the negative consequences of duplicative and overbearing federal oversight have been minimised.
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The unprecedented disruption to European airspace has put volcano risk back in the spotlight.
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AIG has amended its compensation structure for its most highly paid executives, potentially making their income more secure, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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AM Best has provided the financial strength rating of A and issuer credit rating (ICR) of a to Brit Insurance.
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Paris-based insurer Axa has agreed to sell its most of its UK life and pensions unit to Resolution, the buyout vehicle of Clive Cowdery, for £2.75bn ($4.1bn).
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Catlin has announceed two changes to its board of directors.
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Crawford & Company has appointed Andries Willemse as vice-president of global technical services (GTS). He will report to Michael Reeves, executive vice-president, global markets.
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Marsh has appointed Caroline Woolley and Alain Petit-Lambotte for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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Microinsurance is being touted as a wonder solution to help people in emerging markets afford insurance. It is less clear that insurance and reinsurance firms can make money from it, however.
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Moody's has downgraded the insurance financial strength rating for Axa UK Life to A1 from Aa3 following the announcement of the proposed acquisition by Resolution.
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Last night, the US House-Senate conference committee on financial services regulatory reform agreed to the final provisions for the new Federal Insurance Office (FIO) in Title V of HR 4173, The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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US property/casualty insurers’ net income swung to $8.9bn in first quarter of 2010 from a loss of $1.3bn in first quarter 2009, despite continuing declines in both written premiums and earned premiums.
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Rating agency Standard & Poor's has revised its outlook on Allied World Assurance Holdings and its operating subsidiaries to positive from stable.
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Solvency II will offer an improved and tighter regulatory regime compared with Solvency I but will have negative credit implications for some players, according to rating agency Moody's.
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US terrorism insurance take-up rates continued to climb in 2009 as companies of all sizes and across all industries continued to purchase terrorism coverage, according to a report from Marsh, the global insurance broker and risk adviser.
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Insurance and reinsurance broker THB has posted a rise in six month broking profit and fees and commissions.
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Towers Watson has appointed Lawrence Racioppo to its insurance brokerage business, as leader of the business’s executive liability practice.
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Responding to a recent video by foreign insurers that it says is "riddled with errors and inaccuracies", the Coalition for a Domestic Insurance Industry (CDII) has released a video rebuttal.
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Whittington Group, the international insurance investor and services provider, is to a new direct online insurance company, DirectAsia.com, in Singapore next week.
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AM Best has provided financial strength rating (FSR) of A+ and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “aa” to Great-West Life Assurance and its core subsidiaries.
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The UK insurance industry has reacted positively to proposed changes to the taxation of profits from UK insurers’ foreign branches that were unveiled in yesterday’s budget by Chancellor George Osbourne.
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CNA Financial has opened its new branch office in Washington DC. The commercial insurance writer has appointed George Agyen to lead its new branch.
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Solvency II is not seen as ideal regulation by those outside Europe, such as US insurance regulators, says Reactions editor Michael Loney.
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Crawford & Company has appointed Alice Edwards as vice-president of global technical services (GTS) - business development.
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Above-average hurricane activity is predicted this year. But is the industry ready for a big hit.
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The Nordic insurance market has been attracting a lot of attention recently, with Lloyd’s opening its first representative office in Sweden and RSA targeting ambitious growth in the region.
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First Insurance Company of Hawaii has partnered with Axis Insurance to provide hurricane insurance, Business Journal reports.
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Following a succession of losses during the beginning of 2010, Lord Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s of London, took the time to remind the US that Lloyd’s remains a “true partner to American industry in managing its risks.”
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Munich Re is estimating a 15% growth in its business from Asia, up from its current 11%, according to its CEO, Nikolaus von Bomhard, Reuters reports.
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The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (Namic) has called on members of the US Senate to add their support to legislation reauthorising the National Flood Insurance Programme (NFIP) that has won approval by the House.
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US property/casualty insurer financial impairments have more than tripled since 2007, according to an AM Best report.
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Sagicor Life Insurance has appointed Todd Campbell as president and CEO.
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The decision by Sundance Resources’ directors to board the flight that led to their deaths in the Congo this week is unlikely to have voided their company insurance, reports the Australian Courier Mail.
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Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) is seen as an obvious buyer of Transamerica Re, the life reinsurance unit of Dutch insurer Aegon. Yesterday Aegon said it was “exploring strategic options” for Transamerica.
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Willis has appointed Michael Neborak as executive vice-president and group CFO.
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Dutch insurance firm Aegon has said it is “exploring strategic options” for Transamerica Re, its life reinsurance subsidiary.
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Resolution and Axa are nearing a £2.75bn ($4bn) deal for the French insurer's UK life operations, reports The Wall Street Journal.
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The growing number of severe natural catastrophes is giving rise to greater loss potential, while combating climate change is opening up new business segments and creating opportunities for the insurance industry, according to Munich Re.
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The British Insurance Brokers’ Association has voiced disappointment over the move. But others argue it could help competition.
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The number of earthquakes this year has been normal but the casualties and insured losses have not. Risk modellers are asking where the next mega quake could strike.
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Genworth Financial has priced $400m of senior notes with an interest rate of 7.7% per year.
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The International Insurance Society (IIS) has announced Norman Sorensen, president - international asset management and accumulation, Principal Financial Group, will succeed Brian Duperreault, president and chief executive officer, Marsh & McLennan Companies, as the IIS chairman.
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Bermudian reinsurer Montpelier Re Holdings has prevailed in arbitration proceedings with Manufacturers Property & Casualty Limited that involved a dispute over two contracts under which Montpelier Re purchased reinsurance protection.
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Navigators Management has launched a combined products-completed operations and errors and omissions liability insurance product.
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President Barack Obama will warn insurance industry executives against imposing rate increases in expectation of tightening regulation under a new law, The New York Times reports.
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Willis Group Holdings is opening a representative office in Kazakhstan, after securing official approval from local authorities.
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Aegon is looking to sell its UK life and pensions division for £1.5bn ($2.2bn), This Is Money reports. The Dutch insurer’s in-house advisers are ‘tidying up’ the unit to enable an investment bank to market the business later this year.
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AMP’s offer to buy the Australian and New Zealand business of Axa Asia Pacific Holdings has been approved by the New Zealand Commerce Commission, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Aviva has appointed Dipak Warren as corporate risk solutions director. She will take up her new role in September and will be based in London, reporting to Axel Schmidt, chief underwriting officer.
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Berkshire Hathaway is entering the Indian insurance market through a corporate agency, Economic Times reports.
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Shareholders in Brit Insurance have urged the company’s management to accept an improved bid offer from US private equity firm Apollo, according to a story in the Independent on Sunday.
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The BP debacle suggests insurance companies are right to be cautious about keeping up with the fast changing needs – and exposures – of some buyers, says Adrian Ladbury, Reactions’ European editor
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American International Group and China Strategic Holdings have agreed to extend the deadline for the sale of AIG’s Taiwan unit to China Strategic, the company said in a statement.
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The financial position of German public market insurers has improved greatly after having been adversely affected by the global financial crisis in 2008, according to a new report released by Fitch.
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Floods across southern China have killed at least 132 people and forced 860,000 to leave their homes, The Associated Press reports.
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LIU Europe has established a local underwriting presence in France for trade credit and political risk business with the appointment of Alexandre Egnell as assistant vice-president, trade credit/political risk.
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While most counterparty security procedures are getting stricter, global reinsurers are poised to benefit from reduced collateral requirements, rating agency Moody’s has said.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its probe of former AIG executive, who was responsible for the insurer’s build-up of credit default swaps (CDS), Financial Times reports.
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More than half of insurers say they receive reinsurance payments within 30 days and nearly all report that they receive their payments within 60 days, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Inpoint Services, an Aon company.
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Bao Viet Insurance will increase its registered capital by 50% to $79.2m to increase competitiveness, Reuters reports.
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Fairfax Financial Holdings is planning to sell debt by selling senior notes. The property/casualty insurer is looking to raise $275m by selling 7.25% notes, which will be due 2020.
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Life reinsurers could benefit from the weakened balance sheets of direct insurers. But cession rates have plummeted in recent years.
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Arthur J Gallagher has acquired the operations of Bowen, Miclette, Britt & Merry of Arkansas from Bowen, Miclette & Britt Insurance Agency in Texas.
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A US GAO report has identified four proposals contained in proposed legislation that would increase the federal role in natural catastrophe insurance and could affect the reinsurance industry's participation in natural catastrophe insurance markets
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HCC Insurance Holdings has named Pauline Morley senior vice president of professional liability at its Professional Indemnity Agency (PIA) subsidiary.
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Nick Lowe, director of government affairs at the International Underwriting Association, has called for an integrated well informed regulator to oversee the insurance industry.
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Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance is purchasing the non-life insurance business of Hong Leong Financial Group (HLFG) for $500m.
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Petrovietnam Insurance has signed a deal to provide insurance to the country’s Dung Quat oil refinery, Reuters reports.
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Sonoma Risk Insurance Agency has created an executive advisory board, which will support and advise the insurer in expanding its policy offerings.
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Household Life Insurance and First Central National Life Insurance of New York’s financial strength ratings (FSR) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) have been affirmed by AM Best.
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An innovative YouTube video produced by Swiss Re should be applauded. But the insurance and reinsurance industry is still far from understanding the benefits of social media, says Reactions' editor Michael Loney.
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Risk modellers are preparing many updates to their models worldwide, which could have an effect on pricing. But are insurance and reinsurance firms over-reliant on them?
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Malaysian insurer, Kurnia Asia, is seeking a takaful licence, The Star reports. The insurer is awaiting the approval of Bank Negara.
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The board of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance has appointed Roger Crandall as chairman. Crandall is replacing non-executive chairman and member of the board of directors, Stuart Reese.
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Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) is boosting its risk management provisions by taking financial cover from New India Assurance.
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Solvency II produces some interesting concerns for insurance and reinsurance companies, says Garry Booth, Reactions' contributing editor.
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The Travelers Companies has secured a new $1bn credit line from a syndicate of lenders, Hartford Business reports.
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Willis Re has opened a new office in Toronto, Canada. Robert Wildbore, executive director at Willis Re, has been appointed executive vice-president and head of the new office.
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The FOIR has announced an agreement with Bermuda-based reinsurer XL Re to participate in Florida’s insurance marketplace under reduced collateral demands.
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Farmers’ Mutual Group’s (FMG) financial strength ratings have been upgraded to A from A-. AM Best has also upgraded the company’s issuer credit rating to a from a-.
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Canopius Group has made a number of promotions following a review of its senior management organisation at its Lloyd's platform, Canopius Managing Agents (CMA).
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Lloyd’s today announced that Paul Jardine from Catlin Syndicate Limited will become a deputy chairman of The Council of Lloyd’s following Ewen Gilmour’s retirement from the position earlier this month.
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The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) is looking to allow more banks to sell life insurance products in a bid to expand the market, Reuters reports.
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Sergio Balbinot, managing director of Generali, has been elected vice-president of the European insurance and reinsurance federation the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA).
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Donald Larson has been appointed as the president and COO of the Great American Property and Casualty Group and Great American Insurance.
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Indonesia's Papua province has been hit by a series of earthquakes, Reuters reports.
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The US Senate’s vote against legislation that included a provision to reauthorise the National Flood Insurance Program has drawn criticism from the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.
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Lincoln Financial Group has issued notes worth nearly $750m. The offering consists of $250m of 4.3% senior notes, maturing in 2015 and $500m of 7% senior notes, maturing in 2040.
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Japan’s third-largest nonlife insurer, NKSJ Holdings, will acquire Turkish insurer, Fiba Sigorta, for nearly $309m.
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Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed that he will give the Bank of England the Financial Services Authority’s previously held role of regulating UK financial institutions, the BBC reports.
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Rolf Tolle, the former franchise performance director at Lloyd’s, is to join the board of Beazley Furlonge, the Lloyd’s managing agency that forms part of Beazley.
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Reactions is launching its annual Global Non-Life Reinsurers Survey and we need your help. The aim is to provide reinsurance buyers with the fairest and most in depth performance benchmark of the reinsurance industry.
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Northern Japan has been hit by an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, The Associated Press reports.
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AIG’s US government rescue saved European banks from raising $16bn in capital during the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports.
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Ambac Financial Group is considering different options to bankruptcy, Bloomberg reports. The alternatives include a possible capital injection from financial firms that have divested credit-default swap protection on it.
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Aon Benfield has launched a report in conjunction with the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre warning of the threat posed by severe earthquakes.
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Over the past decade Chubb, FM Global, and WR Berkley have been the top financially strong US insurance companies, according to a Fitch Ratings report on property/casualty insurer long-term financial performance.
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Berkshire Hathaway’s unit, GEICO, has filed a lawsuit to challenge a no-fault scheme involving the submission of thousands of suspect no-fault claims to the insurer.
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Hiscox has appointed Krystalle Tobin as chief financial officer for its Bermuda business. Tobin has been Bermuda since 2006 as financial controller and treasurer.
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Lincoln Financial Group is selling shares worth nearly $335m. The Philadelphia-based insurer will sell 12.3m shares of its common stock at $27.25 per share.
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Moody's has affirmed the ratings of Marsh & McLennan Companies following the announcement that MMC's consulting subsidiary, Mercer, has resolved litigation brought by the Alaska Retirement Management Board.
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Newline has appointed Ceri Welch as senior underwriter. He will be accountable for all commercial professional indemnity (PI) underwriting,
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Ben McKay, senior vice-president of federal government relations for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), has urged US politicians to “put politics aside and reauthorise the flood insurance programme.”
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Reactions magazine is conducting a poll to find out which are the best insurance, reinsurance and broker firms in the Bermuda market. Your opinion counts and we would be grateful if you took just five minutes to complete it.
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The decision by Paris-based insurer Axa to enter into discussions with Resolution, the insurance buyout vehicle, to sell part of its UK life and savings operations in the UK has been welcomed by analysts.
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Bermuda today signed a bilateral agreement with Canada that provides for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between the two countries.
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Chaucer Syndicate 1084 has formed a strategic energy alliance with Boots & Coots, an international well control company, and two insurance brokers, Mexbrit and Global Special Risks (GSR).
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The International Insurance Society, which just convened in Madrid, has an insurance hall of fame. But listening to discussions at this year’s excellent IIS annual seminar made Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth wonder if, in a parallel universe, there might be an insurance hall of infamy.
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The life run-off business of Charles Taylor Consulting has acquired Guernsey-registered Finistere Life Assurance Company from Carey Group.
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Legal & General has named Sainty, Hird & Partners recruitment consultant, Financial News reports.
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The consulting subsidiary of MMC has reached a $500m settlement agreement with the Alaska retirement board. The development prompted rating agency S&P to place MMC’s long-term counterparty credit rating on negative outlook from stable.
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Munich Re is preparing a catastrophe bond covering the Massachusetts area.
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India’s Nicobar Islands has been hit by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, Xinhua reports.
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Oman Insurance Company (OIC) has replaced all seven members on its board, MEED reports.
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In the midst financial uncertainty reinsurance companies tend to want to bulk up terms of capital in order to reduce the risk to shareholders and clients, according to Patrick Thiele, president and CEO of PartnerRe who was justifying his firm’s acquisition of Paris Re at an S&P conference.
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Resolution Group is looking to acquire part of Axa’s UK unit for about £2.8bn, Financial Times reports.
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Scottsdale Insurance has appointed John Goodloe as senior vice-president of brokerage.
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Commercial insurance prices were flat during the first quarter of 2010, according to Towers Watson's most recent Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey.
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Bermudian reinsurer Validus Holdings has announced the final results of its “modified Dutch auction” tender offer, which expired today.
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Zurich Financial Services is planning to set up a single headquarters for its European life assurance business.
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American International Group (AIG) and the buyers of its Nan Shan unit in Taiwan have modified the terms of the deal in an effort to speed the transaction up, reports Reuters.
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Allied World Assurance Company (Europe) has appointed Dawn Zacharow. She will join the firm’s small to medium sized enterprises (SME) division and will be based in London.
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The failed attempt by US private equity firm Apollo to acquire Brit Insurance in a £10 a share deal that valued the Lloyd’s insurer at £785m could be sign of a new offer to come.
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Brit Insurance has rejected a bid of more than £570m from Apollo, Financial Times reports.
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The International Insurance Society’s annual seminar took place in Madrid this week. Reactions was there, bringing you a daily newsletter in association with KPMG, reporting the latest news from the sessions and bringing you exclusive interviews with high-ranking delegates at the IIS. PDFs of the newsletter are now available for free download.
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Neill Currie oversaw a record year for Bermuda catastrophe reinsurance writer RenaissanceRe in 2009. He is confident RenRe can keep up the pace, despite first-quarter losses, the threat of new regulation and potential changes to how Bermuda firms are taxed.
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Kushner Companies is looking to acquire AIG’s stake in a $1.9bn portfolio of about 17,000 apartments, Bloomberg reports.
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John Napier, chairman of UK insurer RSA, has branded Barack Obama as being anti-British for his attack on BP in an open letter seen by Sky News.
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Pacific Life Insurance has appointed Pimco to oversee a $250m investment portfolio.
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Swiss Re has increased its estimate of claims from the Chile earthquake, net of retrocession, to $630m before tax.
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