-
March 2010
Fortis has been fined Eu576,000 ($787,543) by Dutch regulator, AFM, for downplaying its solvency problems and withholding share price information.
-
The Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers today filed its opposition to a house bill which would replace private sector risk bearing capital with government reinsurance and government guarantees of state debt.
-
Leigh Ann Pusey, president and CEO of the American Insurance Association, today sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee voicing concerns over the Homeowners’ Defense Act (HR 2555).
-
Marsh and Aon should be more vocal about whether they will accept contingent commissions now that their ban has been lifted.
-
Zurich, along with Sonoma Risk Insurance Agency, is looking to start an attorneys’ fees insurance programme in the US.
-
Hank Greenberg, the former leader of American International Group (AIG), is set to testify on Wednesday (March 10) about the controversial deals involving AIG and General Re, Reuters reports.
-
MetLife is close to concluding its $15bn purchase of AIG’s foreign life-insurance unit, American Life Insurance Company (Alico), following a ruling by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), The Wall Street Journal reports.
-
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has welcomed the House passage of the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act (NARAB II).
-
After the ban on contingent commissions was lifted for the world’s three biggest three brokers, Reactions spoke to Pat Gallagher, chairman, president and CEO of the fourth-largest US broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co to see what his opinion is on the controversial payments.
-
The US Senate has passed legislation that includes yet another short-term extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
-
Kermitt Brooks, a former deputy superintendent with the New York State Insurance Department, has been named associate general counsel with the AXA Equitable law department.
-
For the second consecutive time, US Congress has failed to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) before its expiration date and has allowed it to lapse.
-
February 2010
Nikolaus von Bomhard, CEO of Munich Re, has lambasted the argument that insurance companies can be labelled as “too big to fail” based on sized alone.
-
The UK government has upheld a 2007 ruling in the House of Lords that pleural plaques does not constitute actionable or compensatable damage.
-
The US House of Representatives has passed the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, legislation repealing the limited anti-trust exemption for health insurers.
-
In a first of its kind agreement, German reinsurer Hannover Re has become the first foreign reinsurer to benefit from lower collateral requirements in the US, with an agreement it has reached with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
-
Richard Cordray, the attorney general of Ohio, said he is encouraged by a federal court ruling granting class certification in his securities litigation against US insurer American International Group.
-
A financial institution’s size should not be the determinant of systemic risk, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has urged.
-
Medical malpractice insurance has been excluded from a bill introduced in the US House of Representatives that would eliminate portions of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempts the insurance industry from certain anti-trust laws.
-
President Barack Obama may consider giving the federal government authority to block insurers from making premium rate increases.
-
With Aon, Marsh and Willis now able to accept contingent commissions again, the market is abuzz with questions about which of them will accept the controversial payments, how much business this could bring and what buyers’ reaction will be.
-
Fairfax Financial Holdings’ proposed acquisition of US insurer Zenith National Insurance is facing multiple investigations on behalf of disgruntled investors in Zenith over allegations of breaches of fiduciary duty by Zenith’s board of directors.
-
Law firm Robbins Umeda has started an investigation into possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law by the board of directors of US insurer Zenith National Insurance Corp in connection with their actions in the firm’s merger agreement with Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings, announced today.
-
Reactions will be recognising the best companies, teams and individuals in the London market with our Reactions London Awards 2010 programme, and we need your help. Have your say now!
-
The Spitzer-era ban on contingent commissions for the world’s biggest insurance brokers, Aon, Marsh and Willis, has been lifted. An equity analyst believes Aon and Marsh could now receive as much as $200m a year in contingent commissions.
-
The Risk and Insurance Management Society today announced its dismay at a decision by the New York insurance department and attorney general to allow the big three brokers to resume taking contingent commissions.
-
US insurance broker Aon Corporation has today announced that it has reached an amended and restated agreement on the issue of compensation business practices with three states.
-
Liberty Mutual Insurance has claimed it has been a victim of fraud and asked a federal court judge to undo a recent settlement between a US regulator and General Re.
-
The US government will offer an online session of the healthcare bill ahead of President Barack Obama’s bipartisan summit on February 25, Financial Times reports.
-
A piece of US employment legislation introduced in the US senate that included an extension of the National Flood Insurance Programme has been scaled back to a version that does not include the NFIP.
-
Insurance broker Willis Group Holdings today entered into agreement with the attorney general and the superintendent of insurance of the state of New York to amend and restate its 2005 Assurance of Discontinuance and Stipulation (the AOD).
-
The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) has reacted angrily to the UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) plan to hike insurance broker’s fees by 122%.
-
New-York bond insurer MBIA must defend a class-action lawsuit challenging its 2009 decision to place its municipal insurance business into a new unit.
-
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) association will go ahead with legal action to stop a new piece of producer compensation disclosure regulation that has been proposed by the New York state insurance department.
-
Federal and state investigators are probing into the cause of premium hikes by a division of health insurer, WellPoint.
-
By Mark Howard, a partner at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP
-
A review into UK civil litigation costs has sparked controversy.
-
A Scottish ruling leaves insurers on hook for billions.
-
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorisation Act provides important solvency protection for property/casualty insurers in the event of catastrophic acts of terrorism and a scaling back of the programme will increase property/casualty insurers’ exposure to terrorism, says rating agency Moody’s.
-
Hector Sants resigned as CEO of the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Monday, throwing the future of future role of the FSA into confusion.
-
Labour MP Andrew Dismore on Friday reintroduced a Bill in the UK House of Commons to reverse a 2007 House of Lords ruling that ended rights of pleural plaques sufferers from claiming compensation.
-
US congressman Tom Perriello and congresswoman Betsy Markey today introduced a stand alone bill to remove the limited antitrust exemption for health and medical professional liability insurers.
-
A coalition of 13 US insurance groups have voiced support for US president Barack Obama’s proposal to cut what it sees as offshore tax avoidance. The coalition has urged legislation to be passed quickly.
-
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has welcomed the House passage of the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act (NARAB II).
-
Testimony by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about the collapse of American International Group (AIG) has sparked criticism from insurers.
-
US insurer Liberty Mutual has filed a lawsuit against rivals and former executives and Aspen Insurance, reports Reuters.
-
The Risk and Insurance Management Society today expressed concerns with two Obama administration US budget proposals that it feels will be detrimental to commercial insurance consumers.
-
US president Barack Obama’s 2010 new budget proposal puts the issue of tax avoidance through offshore business back in the limelight as it plans to reduce the US deficit.
-
US president Barack Obama’s proposed budget unveiled today eliminates nearly $250m in federal subsidies to insurance companies for terrorism insurance, according to the AIA.
-
January 2010
XL plans to redomicile to Ireland and the remaining Lloyd’s players headquartered in the UK are also considering leaving. We ask why firms are looking to move and to where.
-
A federal judge has ordered Lloyd’s of London to pay for the criminal defence costs for Allen Stanford, the founder and chairman of Stanford Financial Group, and two officers in his company accused for their part in a $7bn Ponzi scheme.
-
The sanction commission of Six Swiss Exchange, Switzerland’s stock exchange, has imposed a fine on Swiss Re.
-
New York’s Insurance Department will prioritise making the city a place where insurance companies want to do business by launching the New York insurance exchange, said James Wrynn, the department’s superintendent, at a Reactions US Business Club held in New York last week.
-
Warren Buffett has admitted that the settlement General Re reached with the SEC for its role in finite reinsurance deals with American International and Prudential Financial is appropriate.
-
A New York judge Wednesday dismissed criminal charges against former Marsh & McLennan Companies and Zurich Financial Services executives who pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an insurance bid-rigging investigation.
-
US specialty insurer Assurant has entered into a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that concludes the SEC’s finite reinsurance investigation of the firm.
-
Standard Life has been fined £2.45m for misrepresenting the riskiness of an investment fund that buyers thought was primarily holding cash.
-
Economic turmoil drove a surge in securities lawsuit filings in 2009, according to a new report from Advisen.
-
President Barack Obama’s plans for healthcare reform were thrown into jeopardy last night after the Republicans scored a political upset by winning Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts.
-
General Re, the reinsurer owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has agreed to pay more than $60m to end an investigation into its role in a fraud at American International Group, Bloomberg reports.
-
Zenith Insurance, an insurance subsidiary of Zenith National Insurance, has appointed Judge Pamela Foust.
-
Insurers exposed to the UK property/casualty market could face elevated claims costs from asbestos should four insurers fail in their bid to appeal a legal ruling which gives victims of an asbestos-related illness the right to claim damages.
-
Specialist fraud police are hunting for a UK-based insurance broker who was expelled from the financial services industry for defrauding doctors’ surgeries in a £400,000 scam, UK newspaper The Times reports.
-
In his review of civil litigation costs, Lord Justice Jackson has called for success fees and after-the-event (ATE) insurance premiums to be irrecoverable in no win, no fee cases.
-
The American Insurance Association (AIA) has hit out at President Barack Obama’s proposals for a new tax on Wall Street’s largest financial institutions, warning that the imposition of such a tax would set a bad precedent for the industry.
-
Out of the pieces of legislation facing the industry this year, it was “too big to fail” which received the most attention at the annual Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum held in New York this week.
-
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned Stephen Allen, a director of insurance broker, Fabien Risk Services, for failing in his duties as a director of a regulated firm.
-
The Association of Run-Off Companies (ACR) has warned that run-off firms will be disadvantaged by the impending Solvency II directive.
-
The European Commission has authorised a Danish measure that provides a state guarantee on non-life insurance against damages from nuclear, biological, chemical or radioactive terrorist attacks.
-
A recent lawsuit against 14 insurance companies could be the start of a trend in Chinese drywall legal action.
-
The New York Insurance Association has filed a lawsuit to stop what it claims is New York state’s illegal diversion of insurance assessments to fund non-insurance programmes.
-
Read a selection of stories from the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Reactions.
-
Thomas Scherer has been named senior vice-president and general counsel for Chartis, the general insurance operations of American International Group.
-
Zurich Financial Services Group today announced the transfer of the majority of its general insurance portfolios in Italy, Portugal and Spain to local branches of its EU-based risk carrier Zurich Insurance in Ireland.
-
Delegates discussed the worrying implications of new regulation for the industry at the Reactions Global Insurance Conference on November 10 and 11.
-
US insurer AIG has asked Thomas Russo, a former top lawyer at Lehman Brothers, to be its next general counsel, according to the Wall Street Journal.
-
Insurers have lost a legal battle to invalidate a Scottish legislation, which gives victims of an asbestos-related condition the right to claim damages, Financial Times reports.
-
Modernisation and Solvency II, two of the London market’s biggest challenges for 2010, will be closely linked and interdependent, predicts Dave Matcham, chief executive of the International Underwriting Association.
-
Predicting the future direction of the market is not a simple exercise. In today’s climate it is a genuine challenge. Nevertheless, a number of events and recent judicial developments are helpful indicators.
-
Takaful International, a Bahrain firm, has won the Bahrain insurance coverage tender of several ministries and governmental organisations.
-
A division of AIG is required to pay more than $517m of reinsurance to five workers’ compensation insurers in liquidation.
-
David Paterson, the New York state governor, today vowed to revive the New York insurance exchange.
-
Insurance companies in China have secured the approval of their regulator to buy AAA-rated non-guaranteed bonds, The Wall Street Journal reports.