-
August 2010
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
US insurer The Hanover Insurance Group today announced that Gerald Merritt has joined the company as president of its professional liability business.
-
Aspen Insurance Holdings has appointed Timothy Ryan to lead a new excess casualty team, The Wall Street Journal reports.
-
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.
-
Torus has expanded its casualty platform with the appointment of David Whyman as senior vice-president, UK head of casualty, based in London.
-
July 2010
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.
-
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.
-
Torus has hired Esther Fittinghoff as professional lines manager and Kurt Fleischmann as senior casualty underwriter.
-
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.
-
Transatlantic Holdings, has reported net income of $111m for the second quarter of 2010 compared with $112m for the second quarter of 2009.
-
The plan to set up a state-owned insurer in Brazil has shifted the goalposts for international firms, says Reactions' contributing editor Garry Booth.
-
Scor Global’s property/casualty and specialty treaty renewals at end of June have resulted in premium growth of 19% at constant exchange rates.
-
Insurance broker Aon Corporation has announced it will start receiving contingent commissions again. Rims is not happy with the decision.
-
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”.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The insurance arm of Bermudian insurance and reinsurance firm Axis Capital has formed a design professionals and environmental liability unit.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?
-
Ahead of mid-year reinsurance treaty renewals, rates for US property/casualty business continued to decline, according to MarketScout.
-
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.
-
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...
-
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.
-
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.