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Sub-prime crisis offers crucial lessons for insurers
The crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market and the wide reaching effect that the securitisation of residential mortgages has had on the insurance and banking industries has brought sharp focus to the desirability or otherwise of securitised loans..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
Appeared in issue:
847 - 06 October 2008
Asia
Hong Kong insurer downgraded
Rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the debt ratings of Hong Kong credit insurer, China Orienwise following the announcement of an investigation into alleged fraud at its parent company Credit Orienwise Group by..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Europe
Axa CS locates global support unit in Ipswich
Axa Corporate Solutions (Axa CS) has established a back office support unit for its international operations in Ipswich in the UK. The office will handle all the financial flows relating to Axa..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
US
Torus acquires E&S insurer
The London market and Bermudian specialty underwriter Torus Insurance Holdings will acquire the US excess and surplus lines insurer, Praetorian Specialty Insurance Company (PSIC) from QBE Americas. PSIC is licensed to..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
Appeared in issue:
847 - 06 October 2008
International
Willis Re announces P&I unit
Reinsurance broker Willis Re has launched a Protection & Indemnity (P&I) and Marine Mutual Reinsurance unit as part of its Specialities Marine Division. Willis Re is the reinsurance arm of the Willis Group...
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Aviation
14.9, crash, fatalities
Russia: a Boeing 737- 500 airliner crashed near the Ural mountains, killing all 88 passengers and crew on board, 21 of them foreign nationals. The aircraft, operated by Russia’s national airline Aeroflot and on an..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Natural catastrophes
9.9, Hurricane Gustav
US: a single scrap metal company was responsible for all of about 70 barges and ships that floated loose in a major city canal during hurricane “Gustav,” threatening flood walls and a bridge, according to the US..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Marine
10.9, explosion
Singapore: a shipyard worker was injured in an explosion during welding work on pontoon Orion 1505 in the Pandan Road yard. The explosion ripped off part of the pontoon and sent an Indian worker hurtling into the sea. The man was..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Liability, awards and settlements
10.9, ferry accident, jury recommendation
US: a federal jury recommended that a passenger crippled in the accident involving ferry Andrew J.Barberi in Staten Island in 2003 should receive nearly US$23.0mn for his past and future medical needs,..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Property damage and business interruption
12.9, gas pipeline fire
Mexico: a gas pipeline caught fire in an accident near the capital, sending flames more than 100 ft into the air and closing a main highway into the city. Two men were injured in the fire in the industrial town of Cuautitlan..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Late reports
4.9, helicopter crash, investigation
United Arab Emirates: an investigation was launched by the Dubai police and civil aviation authority into the cause of a fatal crash on Sep 3 of a Bell 212 helicopter on an oil rig off the coast of Dubai...
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Everest Re Group
The Bermuda based Everest Re group saw a marginal decline (0.2%) in its net income from a profit of $840.8mn in 2006 to a profit of $839.3mn in 2007. But last year was a little less restful for Everest Re than might be inferred from the..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Making the transition from state monopoly to free market
At the end of 2007, the former monopoly insurer Syrian Insurance Company (SIC), had a 60% share of the total insurance market; life, health and non-life combined.
Since then, the capture by the private insurance market of about 40% of total market..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Strong gains for some stocks despite negative news for sector
This is not only because of insurance sector specific negative factors such as insured damage caused by Hurricane Ike and Gustav over the previous three weeks and the highly public $85.0bn bailing out of AIG, the world’s largest insurance..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
World Bank unit buys stake in Peruvian microinsurer
The World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, has taken a 16.5% stake in Protecta, Peru’s first insurer specialising in microinsurance. The company was set up last March by the local ACP financial group...
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
AIG’s local units insist it is “business as usual”
The Latin American subsidiaries of AIG have been forced to defend their positions in the wake of the beleaguered US insurance giant AIG’s recent rescue by the federal authorities. In Chile, Seguros Interamericana denied press rumours that it..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Two new ventures propose to fill the gap of collapsed mutual
Hungary’s 2007 total premium income increased by 12.1% to HUF930.3bn from 2006, well in excess of the 8% rate of inflation. Life insurance again increased faster, at 20.9% to HUF508.7bn and now accounts for 54.7% of total business. Single..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
New laws expose Europe to US-style class actions, broker warns
Liability insurers in Europe would be well advised to watch rulings on product liability, environmental regulation, and new levels of oversight. This was the view of Guy Carpenter managing director George Carrington as he introduced the reinsurance..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Non-life insurance drives growth in Spain
The Spanish insurance market grew by 3.1% last year to €53.97bn (US$78.04bn), according to figures published by Fundacion Mapfre, the nonprofit making shareholder of the demutualised insurance group. This included €30.96bn..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Insurers struggle to find signs of life in flat market
Sales of individual life insurance policies in the second quarter of 2008 were 2% down on the same period last year and flat for the half year, according to new research. And, in its quarterly survey of the US life insurance market – which..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
US catastrophes start to add up but prices remain unaffected
Latest estimates of insured losses from hurricane Ike put the claims cost in the region of US$7-$12bn, adding to an already above-average year for US catastrophe losses. But rating agencies say that the increased number of natural..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Underwriting profits slump 96% in six months
The US non-life reinsurance industry posted sharply reduced underwriting profits and lower investment earnings in the first half of 2008 but overall profitability for the sector remained higher than the prior-year period, according to a survey of..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Page turners – TCF and customer magazines
Insurance companies in the UK are prolific users of direct mail. In the first three months of 2008 a total of 117.45 million mailings were sent by insurance companies, a rise of 3.4% on the same period in 2007. These figures confirm the central..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
Transatlantic forms special AIG action committee
Reinsurance group Transatlantic Holding’s has formed a special committee of its board of directors to evaluate any proposals from AIG relating to the possible sale of AIG’s 59% stake interest in the company.
The Special Committee is..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
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847 - 06 October 2008
VAT reform gets go-ahead
Given the gravity of the Wall Street crisis exemplified by the rescue of the AIG Group by the US federal authorities, the European Parliament felt able to rubber-stamp relatively modest reforms concerning the way VAT is charged on European..
Online Published Date:
06 October 2008
Appeared in issue:
847 - 06 October 2008