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Corporate round-up
Reinsurance broking group BMS plans to develop business in southern Africa through a new co-operation venture with NewBridge Reinsurance Brokers (Pty), based in Johannesburg. Steve Higginson, chairman & managing director of BMS International..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Reinsurance people
■ Marie-Louise Rossi
is leaving the International Underwriting Association after 11 years. She is currently its chief executive but plans to concentrate on her political ambitious in the short-term, with a possible return to insurance later..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Corporate security assessment
Regular analysis of reinsurance corporate security using information based on recent financial and market performance.
REINSURANCE AUSTRALIA CORPORATION (REAC):
Australians are known all over the world for their ability to adopt a positive..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Global reinsurance statistics
In TRR
January 31, 2005 we included an article on global reinsurance statistics titled "IAIS completes reinsurance study". In it, we listed combined ratios for seven leading jurisdictions. However, for this part of the survey the Reinsurance..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Dismal 2004 makes the record books
Swiss Re’s annual analysis of catastrophic losses underlines just what an expensive year 2004 was. Insurers suffered losses of $49bn, a record for an individual year, although this was only 40% of the overall $123bn in economic damages.
The..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Pennsylvania reaches Reliance deal
Pennsylvania insurance commissioner Diane Koken has reached an $85m agreement to settle her lawsuit against former directors and officers of failed Reliance Insurance Co.
The deal, combined with a previous $45m recovery from Reliance's parent..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Marsh pays the financial price
Marsh & McLennan has reported that its 2004 net income plummeted by 88% to $180m owing to a fourth quarter in which an $850m settlement of Mr Spitzer's bid-rigging lawsuit against the company led to a loss of $676m against a year-earlier gain..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
IRB acts while government ponders
No matter what the government, confusion reigns in Brazil as far as reinsurance is concerned. President Lula da Silva’s government continues to make encouraging noises about the end of the monopoly enjoyed by state reinsurer IRB-Brasil..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Aon reaches $190m settlement
US broking, consulting and underwriting group Aon Corp has agreed to pay $190m to settle investigations by three states into bid-rigging, improper commissions and steering of reinsurance business.
Under the deal - which Aon reached with the..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Arig readies retakaful company
Bahrain’s Arab Insurance Group (Arig) plans to set up a retakaful company in the Dubai International Financial Centre with a starting capital of $124m. Arig intends to be the new company’s majority owner, with a 51% stake, while Islamic..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Appeal court rules on T&N dispute
Reinsurers Centre Re and Munich Re seem to have had the better of the appeal case that pitted them against the administrators of T&N, an asbestos manufacturer that entered bankruptcy, along with its parent, in 2001.
T&N’s failure has..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
UK Club buys new reinsurance
The UK P&I Club has bought additional overspill reinsurance protection for 2005, partly as a result of changes to a long-term reinsurance arrangement with Swiss Re and also to take advantage of what it says is softening in the conventional..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Focus turns to AIG’s Greenberg
Federal and state regulators have reportedly intensified their examination of a non-traditional insurance transaction between AIG and Berkshire Hathaway's General Reinsurance unit owing to the alleged involvement of AIG chairman & chief..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Now title deals fall under spotlight
Investigation into US insurers' business practices has taken a new turn with California and other states examining whether title insurers have engaged in suspect reinsurance deals that regulators allege amount to kickbacks.
California insurance..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
Warren stays quiet on ART role
"Disappointing" is probably not the word that first springs to mind when reviewing the annual report of a company that has just produced a pre-tax profit of $10.7bn. But Berkshire Hathaway is no ordinary company and its charismatic head, Warren..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
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05-05 - 14 March 2005
CEA should look at direct cat bonds
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) should investigate ways to issue catastrophe bonds direct, reducing its reliance on the reinsurance market, according to a financial alternatives workgroup charged with examining options for the..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Fitch wants more Fairfax detail
Canada’s Fairfax is the latest insurance group to feel the wrath of the rating agencies, with Fitch threatening to pull its rating of the group if Fairfax does not increase "the level and quality of public disclosures".
Fairfax has been one of..
Online Published Date:
14 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
05-05 - 14 March 2005
Corporate round-up
US reinsurers had 2004 net income of $3.1bn, about the same as a year earlier, on net written premiums of $28.8bn, down 6.1%, according to figures compiled by the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA). In part owing to hurricane losses, the RAA's..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Reinsurance people
■ The International Underwriting Association has appointed Dave Matcham
as its new chief executive. Mr Matcham, who was previously director of operations at the association, succeeds Marie-Louise Rossi who is leaving to pursue her political..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Corporate security assessment
Regular analysis of reinsurance corporate security using information based on recent financial and market performance.
AXA RE:
There can be little doubt that the last couple of years have seen significant changes in the French reinsurance sector..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Garamendi gives testimony
California insurance commissioner John Garamendi has denied knowing that the French government was behind the 1993 purchase of failed Executive Life Insurance and its valued junk-bond portfolio, asserting that the investor group led by Altus Finance..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Lloyd’s gets little from reinsurers
Lloyd’s has come off worse in its two-year-old dispute with the six insurers of its new Central Fund. The parties have settled and Lloyd’s will receive £152m, which includes amounts previously paid, rather than the sum of more than..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
California pays attorney fees
A US appeals court in San Francisco has ordered the California insurance department to pay the $5m to $10m in legal fees that a group of US and European insurers amassed in their fight to overturn a state law that required carriers to hand over..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
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06-05 - 28 March 2005
Vesta delays filing SEC reports
US insurance group Vesta has delayed the filing of its 10-K annual figures to the Securities & Exchange Commission because it still has not got to the bottom of mistakes in its previous filings and has yet to complete an investigation into the..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
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06-05 - 28 March 2005
Fitch and Germans shake hands
Rating agency Fitch and the German Insurance Association have agreed to disagree on the agency’s rating approach for European insurers under its new Quantitative Insurer Financial Strength Ratings (Q-IFS).
When Fitch announced in December the..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Reinsurers win Exxon LMX appeal
Equitas has lost its appeal in the Exxon Valdez reinsurance case, a decision that is likely to lead to further complications in the London market for a while before claims payments and reimbursements work their way through the LMX system.
The..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Reliance struggles on recoveries
Making reinsurance recoveries remains one of the biggest problems in the liquidation of US insurance group Reliance, as the company’s fourth quarter report clearly indicates.
The statutory liquidator – Diane Koken, the insurance..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Garamendi subpoenas title insurers
California insurance commissioner John Garamendi has issued nine additional subpoenas to six lending and realty (property) companies as part of the growing regulatory investigation of title insurers' possible improper use of reinsurance.
Mr..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Woe continues for Annuity & Life
The sun doesn’t shine on everybody in Bermuda, and local life reinsurer Annuity & Life seems to be permanently in the shade. The company reported a net loss of $68.3m last year, bringing its cumulative deficit for the last four years to..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Bermuda overcomes disaster year
Bermuda’s non-life reinsurers shrugged off hurricanes, tsunamis and the need for additional reserving to post net income in 2004 that was only fractionally down on the previous year figure.
Our quarterly survey shows that 16 reinsurers..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Farewell Hank
Those who say the insurance world moves at a snail’s pace should ponder the dramatic events of the last six months: serious doubts about the integrity of market practice, the world’s largest broker humbled and now the departure of Hank..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005
Finite future
Despite the industry’s confident talk, there was little chance that the regulatory investigations in the US would be confined to a few branches of commercial non-life insurance. And it should be no surprise that phase 2 of the probe puts..
Online Published Date:
28 March 2005
Appeared in issue:
06-05 - 28 March 2005