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Icat launches products in more US states
US managing general agency International Catastrophe Insurance Managers (Icat Managers) has extended its operations into five new states, bringing the total to 12. The company plans to add another five states during 2003.
The current expansion..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
Appeared in issue:
0136 - 01 December 2002
Endurance opens new subsidiary in the UK
New Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group Endurance Specialty has set up a UK subsidiary, called Endurance Worldwide Insurance Ltd (EWIL), to write commercial insurance and reinsurance in the UK. The new subsidiary starts with a capitalization..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Results in brief
Axis Specialty
, one of the new Bermuda cat specialists, produced net income of US$153.8mn for the first three quarters of the year. Gross premiums totalled US$778.7mn, of which US$294.8mn derived from treaty reinsurance and US$483.9mn from..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
RIRG issues updated cost of risk survey
Consultancy Risk & Insurance Research Group, owned by Aon, has launched its 2002-2003 Cost of Risk Survey. The report provides benchmarks on such issues as cost of risk in relation to financial measures, details of staffing levels and costs of..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Changes
Weather station operator AWS Technologies
has appointed Jan Dutton as director of weather services, responsible for leading the development of weather forecast and application products for the AWS weather network. Brad Lemen has been named director..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
LaSalle Re Holdings 2001
Bermudian property catastrophe reinsurer LaSalle Re enjoyed only a brief spell as part of the Trenwick Group. Trenwick, then based in the US, acquired LaSalle Re in September 2000 and subsequently redomesticated the merged operation to Bermuda, the..
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01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Trenwick puts London company into run-off
Mixed news for Bermudian reinsurance group Trenwick. It has secured in principle agreement that its letter of credit (LOC) providers would renew US$182.5mn of capital supporting the group’s operations at Lloyd’s, although the support is..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
ART should bounce back in 2003 – Swiss Re
ART for the European market should show stronger growth in 2003, according to Swiss Re. In its annual review of the European market, Swiss Re highlighted the usefulness of ART as an efficient tool to deal with capital shortage, and the..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
Appeared in issue:
0136 - 01 December 2002
Catlin Westgen completes new funding round
Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group Catlin Westgen has concluded a US$532mn capital raising initiative designed to increase its underwriting capacity at Lloyd’s and support a much-expanded underwriting operation in Bermuda.
Catlin..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Scor adds to reserves of Commercial Risk
French reinsurance group Scor announced more detail on the future direction of its Bermudian ART provider Commercial Risk Partners as it disclosed that its 2002 group net loss was likely to be higher than expected, at €400m.
As we noted in..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Centre pulls out of credit enhancement risk
ART provider Centre Group has been the latest unit within Zurich Financial Services to announce a reorganization of its activities, and it has started a withdrawal from credit enhancement business. Centre will not longer write new credit enhancement..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Insurers return to the terrorism risk market
More than a year after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, President Bush has signed into US law an act that establishes a federal backstop for the insurance industry in the event of further major damage caused by terrorists.
What seemed an..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Florida Cat Fund wants to extend levy
Plans to add surplus lines insurers to the assessment base for Florida’s hurricane catastrophe reinsurance fund received a boost last month when the fund’s advisory council endorsed the proposal.
If the change becomes law, surplus lines..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
NFIP starts year without full authorization
The start of 2003 sees the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)in the US temporarily in limbo because Congress ailed to pass all the necessary legislation before it adjourned on 22 November. Strictly speaking the program cannot write new policies..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Severe US tornadoes bring US$460mn loss
US insurers can expect to pay US$460mn in claims from an outbreak of tornadoes, thunderstorm winds and hail that hit seven states in November, the Property Claim Services division of the Insurance Services Office reported. As a whole, the tornadoes..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
CEA presses for equity on Solidarity Fund
European trade body the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA)is talking to the European Commission to make sure EU countries with insurance schemes that cope with natural catastrophes do not lose out on funds available under the new..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Gray looks back on the inactive 2002 year
The 2002 North Atlantic hurricane season was a quiet one as El Niño conditions dampened storm formation. There were just four hurricanes during the year and 12 tropical storms in all, down on the experience of the last few years but not..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Changing shareholder value
Changes in shareholder value should be one of the major concerns of chief executives, but identifying the causes of these changes is difficult. A recent report carried out by Ernst & Young and Oxford Metrica analysed the factors behind share..
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01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Insurers use enterprise risk management
Another recent risk survey, this one carried out by US consultants Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, found that global insurers are steadily using enterprise risk management (ERM) techniques to manage their operational, strategic and financial risks.
The..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
PwC identifies growth in holistic attitudes
Experts have spoken for many years about the need for a holistic approach to risk management for financial services organizations, and at last it seems companies are starting to take notice. According to a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC),..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Spectron launches weather marketplace
Energy broking group Spectron has launched an electronic marketplace to trade weather derivatives using software provided by TradeCapture. Andrew Stephens, chief operating officer of Spectron, said the firm’s clients would be able to use the..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Castlebridge joins Weather Board of Trade
Consultancy firm Castlebridge Partners has become a charter member of the Weather Board of Trade, creator of the Nordix (normal departure index) contract which it claims is the world’s first market-to-market weather contract.
The Weather Board..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Fitch launches survey of credit derivatives
Credit derivatives have grown from practically nothing in 1997 to an estimated US$2trn in 2002 and could rise to US$4.8trn by the end of 2004. Rating agency Fitch is surveying market participants – including insurers, reinsurers, monolines,..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
Appeared in issue:
0136 - 01 December 2002
Ratings agencies look at ART companies
Recent rating agency action of relevance to the ART market includes the following:
AM Best has affirmed the A-(excellent) financial strength rating of Max Re. The outlook is stable. The rating reflects Max Re’s ‘favourable risk-adjusted..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Life companies will look more to finite cover
Weakening statutory capital levels are likely to encourage US life insurance companies to turn to financial reinsurance products, according to the latest research from ratings agency Fitch.
Investment losses, increased reserving and lower fee..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
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0136 - 01 December 2002
Mutuals object to new reinsurance scrutiny
US trade body the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) has strongly criticised moves by the accounting profession to take another look at the eligibility of quota share reinsurance contracts that limit risk transfer.
The move..
Online Published Date:
01 December 2002
Appeared in issue:
0136 - 01 December 2002