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…but XL scales down size of Cyrus support
Bermuda’s XL Capital has fixed further sidecar support for its reinsurance operations, although the amount of retrocession provided by the new vehicle, Cyrus Re II, is considerably smaller than that of the original deal.
Special purpose..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
Appeared in issue:
195 - 01 December 2007
Brit completes larger Norton sidecar deal…
UK insurance and reinsurance group Brit has arranged its second sidecar retrocession protection deal, in effect a renewal of the original Norton Re transaction of 2006.
Norton Re II is slightly larger, providing $118.2m of capital, up from..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Bermudians spell out their US contribution
Bermuda’s reinsurance sector has maintained a neutral stance on the collateral row between the domestic US industry, and European reinsurers. But Bermuda regularly comes under criticism from US interests because of its perceived tax and..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Average 2007 storm season spares US mainland
US insurers and their reinsurers escaped serious loss during the hurricane season for the second year in a row in 2007. Although tropical storm activity was only slightly down on the long-term average, no storms made landfall over the US, and the..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Changes
GC Securities
is the new name for what used to be known as MMC Securities. In Europe, the division is led by managing director Mark Hewett, and in North America by managing director Christopher McGhee. GC Securities has offices in New York, London..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Writedowns land market with $2bn Q3 loss
The specialist financial guarantee, mortgage and bond insurance sector has suffered more than any other in the insurance industry from this year’s credit crisis. The table lists the financial results for a selection of 10 companies in the..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
More insurers disclose credit crisis losses
Apart from Swiss Re, relatively few insurers in the conventional market have reported serious difficulties because of the credit crisis so far.
One exception, however, is Bermuda’s Scottish Re. For the third quarter, the reinsurer realized..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Credit default losses hit Swiss Re for SF1.2bn
Swiss Re announced radical remedial action after it shocked the market last month by reporting a SF1.2bn (SF981m after tax) mark-to-market loss through its exposure to just two, related credit default swaps written by its credit solutions unit.
The..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Results in brief
We continue our analysis of interim figures, concentrating on ART and property catastrophe developments, and also companies’ exposure to sub-prime investments.
Platinum
continues to trim its finite reinsurance account, in part as a result of..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Liberty Mutual brings together speciality
US insurance group Liberty Mutual is to consolidate its commercial markets specialty lines operations into a single unit. The new unit combines the alternative programmes section, led by Nancy Glennon, which provides services to group programmes,..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Captive market rallies against IRS tax plan
As expected, proposals by the US treasury and tax authorities to change the tax position of domestic captive insurers have met with intense opposition from the local market.
The Treasury and the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) surprised the market in..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Buffett may be called in GenRe finite case
As AIC
went to press, jury selection for the trial of various ex-General Re officials and one ex-American International Group (AIG) executive in connection with a disputed reinsurance arrangement had just started. Warren Buffett, head of General..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Fodera gets another sentence on HIH role
In Australia, Dominic Fodera, formerly finance director & cfo of failed company HIH Insurance, has been sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment for dishonest behaviour in connection with finite-style cover bought from..
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01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Cash settles with SEC on Inter-Ocean deals
Regulators continue to pursue what they see as the improper use of finite-style reinsurance, and some long-running investigations are drawing to their final showdown.
Michael Cash, formerly of RenaissanceRe, last month entered into an agreement with..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Cat bond cover heads Swiss Re hedge list
Swiss Re has about SF4.6bn ($4.1bn) in protection for its gross catastrophic loss exposure, with cat bond protection accounting for the largest element of the protection, at SF1.7bn.
Roger Ferguson, head of Swiss Re’s financial services..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Kamp Re goes through calculation process
The $190m Kamp Re cat bond transaction, designed to protect Zurich’s US account, is going through the final loss calculation stages before producing what is expected to be a full loss caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The administrator..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Quake is likely to trigger Caribbean cat fund
The Caribbean cat fund, set up earlier this year, is already expected to pay out as a result of a recent catastrophic event in the region. Surprisingly the event was not a tropical storm but an earthquake, which struck off the coast of Martinique on..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Non-life risk securitizations 2007
We have updated our tables of this year’s cat bond and other non-life risk securitization transactions to take account of recent deals, such as Scor’s Atlas Re IV.
In addition we now have some basic details on two transactions involving..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007
Scor buys new Atlas cover
French reinsurance group Scor has closed its fourth catastrophe risk securitization under the Atlas series, buying three-year parametric cover of €160m to protect its exposure to European windstorm and Japanese earthquakes.
As with the..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2007
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195 - 01 December 2007