Europe Intelligence Wire articles from March 2005

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from March 2005

Editor's letter - Battlefield lessons for the institutes.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Not all accountants are the same. ICAEW chief executive Eric Anstee told us recently that English & Welsh chartered accountants arrive at a decision through a process involving judgement; the typical CIMA...

Careers - back to school.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Sarah Perrin. This year, on top of everything else, finance directors will start to comply with new Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements. The new CPD schemes were triggered by...

Insight - So what now?
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Kevin Reed. The takeover saga, which began on 6 June 2003 with a $5.1bn bid at $16 per share, was a bitter and protracted one. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (pictured) and PeopleSoft's Craig Conway waged a...

Insight - Art and soul.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Amon Cohen. Anyone who visits Deutsche Bank's London headquarters at Winchester House can see instantly how much corporate taste in art has changed in recent years. On the wall hangs a canvas by Damien...

Insight - Winds of change.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Ben King. On 1 January 2005, the EU's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions trading scheme (ETS) came into effect as part of the EU's efforts to abide by the Kyoto Protocol, which itself came into effect on...

Accounting - Go on... admit it.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Williams, a chartered accountant and freelance journalist. The debate rages over the effectiveness of Sarbanes-Oxley and the impact it has on the corporate strategy of multinational organisations...

Corporate governance - "It stands to reason".
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Robert Bruce, a leading commentator on accountancy issues. There is an assumption that accountants will always insist that their heads will rule their hearts when it comes to policy or decisions. The...

IT strategy - Taking pleasure in pain.[QQ].
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Tom Berry, deputy editor of Financial Director. Since the technology sector has hit hard times, many clients have renegotiated their contracts with IT suppliers, capitalising on increased competition...

Economics - What price inflation?
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Dennis Turner, chief economist at HSBC. Since the UK was humiliatingly dumped out of the ERM in 1992, governments have been pursuing a macro-economic policy aimed at creating a stable environment for...

Compliance - knock, knock.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Peter Bartram. Executives of bus companies Arriva and FirstGroup must have thought they were doing a clever deal out of the public's gaze when they met discreetly in a hotel room to fix up who would...

Logistics - Send it back.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Ben King. What do you do with a single shoe, an old television, or a paddling pool that leaks? Until recently, the answer was simple - find the cheapest way to dispose of it. Now, innovative...

Decisions - Sick pay - Important assets.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) People are your most important assets. They are also the most Sdifficult assets you have. They get sick for no apparent reason, leaving Syou to figure out whether they are work-shy layabouts throwing a duvet Sday,...

Decisions - Sick pay - In sickness, in health.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Neil Hodge. Last May, supermarket giant Tesco announced it was going to test a Spilot scheme, whereby the company would refuse to pay staff for the first Sthree days an employee was ill. The...

Decisions - Pensions up in smoke.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. One of the great ironies of the Inland Revenue's pensions S'Simplification' initiative, which kicks in on 6 April 2006 (universally Sknown as A-Day), is that simple it ain't. ...

Decisions - Longevity - making retirement work.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. The English language is rich in hoary old sayings like 'now't for Snow't', or the impossibility of extracting red corpuscles from a rock. We feel the truth of these bits of...

Decisions - Benefit schemes - the right carrot.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Richard Willsher. Managers are increasingly likely to resign because their salaries are Snot rising fast enough, according to the latest annual Chartered Institute Sof Management survey. The research,...

Decisions - Employment law - rights and wrongs.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Neil Hodge. From April 2005, the Information and Consultation of Employees' SRegulations 2004 gives employees a right to be informed about an Sorganisation's economic situation, employment prospects,...

Decisions - OEExpatriates - Englishmen abroad.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anna Scott, editor of Pay Magazine. There's a broad rule of thumb that it costs a company twice as much Sto send an employee abroad as it would to keep them in the UK. But this is Swhere any simple...

BA Supplement - Travel pricing - Rise and shine.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Amon Cohen. Business is on the march once more. The number of miles flown by airline passengers worldwide was 16% higher in the first 11 months of 2004 than the same period for 2003, meaning the skies...

BA Supplement - Travel pricing - More travel for your money.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Travel: cost-saving tips 1. Negotiate deals This is increasingly important as spot-price bargains shrivel up. The key is in good preparation. That means, according to WPP European head of travel...

BA Supplement - Travel policy - A Long day's journey.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. Whether businesses are cost-conscious or comfort-conscious, virtually everyone has a travel policy. And the need for prudence - a classic accounting virtue if ever there were one -...

BA Supplement - Technology - Check in log on.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. The internet, email and mobile phones are now so integrated into the fabric of business life that the prospect of a long-haul flight without access to these support functions sends...

BA Supplement - Travel - Going, going, gone.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Amon Cohen. Reverse e-auctions, where vendors bid live online to undercut one another for a specified contract, are all the rage in procurement and are even spreading to buying services such as...

BA Supplement - Hotels - Room with a view.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Little more than a decade ago, hotels in the heart of the City of London were few and far between. The Thistle near the Tower of London was among the few hotel chains to offer the kind of accommodation that a...

BA Supplement - Outsourcing - Cost and effect.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. Managing business travel costs is a huge undertaking. In global companies, air flight bills alone can be in excess of GBP100m, and hotels can add tens of millions more to the bill....

BA Supplement - Leisure - Work and perk.
March 1, 2005... (From Financial Director) Byline: Anthony Harrington. Maintaining a work-life balance is difficult these days. And while take-home pay is among the most attractive aspect in recruiting staff, salary alone is no longer incentive...

News Analysis - Hedge fund entrants set to shake up market.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Mairi Mallon. Hedge funds have always been high-risk, big-return investors. So it is no wonder that their entry into the reinsurance market by setting up their own firms has the industry sitting up and taking...

News Analysis - Bermuda's triangle of new financial guarantee reinsurers.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Mairi Mallon. The financial-guarantee industry has insured more than $2trn in debt during its 33-year history, and continues to grow as more issuers and investors recognise the benefits of the reinsurance...

Reweb - ACE announces lower 2004 earnings.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) ACE has reported net income of $282m for the fourth quarter of 2004, down from $444m for the same quarter last year. Income excluding net realised gains for the fourth quarter was $166m, compared with $328m for the...

News Analysis - Reinsurance renewals weather storms.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) "A tremendous, meaningful step forward in the fight to tame an out-of-control court system was taken with the Senate passage of the Class Action Fairness Act (S.5),"f according to Melissa Shelk, vice-president of federal...

Reweb - Odyssey Re reports 2004 results.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Odyssey Re has reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2004 results. Net income was $50.9m for the Q4 2004, compared to $47.6m for Q4 2003. Net income figures included net realised capital gains of $12.6m and $15.7m,...

News round-up - California AG announces deal over Lloyd's dispute.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer has announced that he has reached several landmark agreements which require Lloyd's of London and 15 other defendant insurers to pay the State of California approximately $93m...

News round-up - US P&C market premiums down, claims CIAB survey.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) More than 80% of small and large commercial property/casualty accounts and 90% of medium accounts found their insurance premiums either stable or down by as much as 20% during the fourth quarter of 2004, according to...

Reweb - Swiss Re announces good renewals.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Swiss Re's continued focus on profitable underwriting achieved attractive rates in the January renewal. Premium volume decreased slightly by 2%. John Coomber, chief executive of Swiss Re said: "Our successful...

News round-up - Ace gets Vietnam green light.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Ace has announced that it has been told by Vietnam's Ministry of Finance that its application to establish a wholly-owned life insurance company in Vietnam has been approved and expects to have a licence by mid-year. ...

News round-up - Aon signs Gecalux deal.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Aon Corporation has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Le Foyer and Kredietbank to transfer the business of Gecalux Luxembourg, Gecalux Switzerland and Gecasuisse. The Gecalux business, which...

News round-up - Equitas unveils deal.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Equitas and Centre Group, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, have announced an agreement to commute policies purchased from Centre by Lloyd's syndicates reinsured by Equitas. As a result of the agreement, Centre...

News round-up - Insurers fail in bid to stop compensation for pleural plaques.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Insurers have failed in their attempt to evade responsibility for compensating thousands of victims of asbestos exposure, according to a landmark judgement in a test case announced in the High Court in...

News round-up - Moody's report looks at UK life industry.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The overall rating outlook for the UK life-insurance industry remains negative, says Moody's Investors Service in its new 'Industry Outlook' on the sector. However, the rating agency views the industry as currently...

Re-ratings - Moody's rates AXA.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Moody's has affirmed with a stable outlook AXA's debt ratings (senior at A2), as well as the Aa3 insurance financial strength ratings of AXA's main operating subsidiaries, saying that the group's refocusing and...

Technology - What does it take to get a complete deal file around here?
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Vineet Kalucha, president & CEO, Q.Know Technologies. The current regulatory environment for insurers, reinsurers and brokers is placing significant pressures on companies to manage and track all related deal...

Re-ratings - AM Best puts GE Frankona under review.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) AM Best has placed the financial strength ratings of A (Excellent) of the operating companies of GE Frankona Group under review with negative implications, following a similar rating action regarding its parent,...

Comment - The profits of doom.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The international forum convened to mark the tenth anniversary of the Kobe earthquake was charged to discuss international efforts at prevention and recovery from such catastrophes. As an industry, which in part seeks to...

Comment - Special factors impacting the reinsurance market in 2005.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Edmund Megna, vice-chairman of Guy Carpenter & Company, Inc. The reinsurance market at 1 January, 2005 renewals could, perhaps, best be described as moderately soft, with the emphasis on 'moderately'. ...

Comment - Transparency begins at home.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Sal Zaffino, chief executive of global reinsurance intermediary Guy Transparency will be one of the ubiquitous words of 2005 as brokers address the issues to emerge from the Spitzer enquiry. The largest...

Interview - Onward and upward.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Lloyd's has much to feel positive about as it reflects on the state of its business. After the exceptional losses of 2001 it was able to announce in April 2004 that it had made record profits in 2003 of EUR2.7bn - more...

Technical report: Satellite insurance - Is satellite insurance starting to sparkle?
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Rather like a comet as it starts to approach the sun again, the satellite insurance market is starting to show signs of returning to life. The market has been showing slow but steady improvement over 2004, making...

Technical report: Aviation - Double-decker takes to the skies.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Eric Alexander. The aviation market anticipates no major problems in meeting the challenges of the double-deck Airbus A380 when it is introduced into airline service next year. In the meantime, insurers will...

Life insurance - Coming to new terms with (re)insurance and HIV/Aids.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Keith Sankey. HIV is a major issue for life and health reinsurers and their direct office clients. It is one that needs to be handled with a sensitive touch. Over the years, attitudes and reactions to...

Life insurance - Consolidation creates opportunities in life reinsurance market.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Mairi Mallon. There is a capital crunch in the life reinsurance industry, and Chris Stroup says he is stepping into fill the void by creating Wilton Re. He believes that the shrinking number of US life...

South Africa - Creative spirit takes South Africa to the top of the table.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) According to official statistics from the Life Offices' Association of South Africa, the South African life-insurance market is ranked highest worldwide for insurance penetration relative to gross domestic product (GDP),...

Market Report: Europe - Moody's downbeat over German life industry.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The overall rating outlook for the German life insurance industry remains negative, owing to ongoing earnings pressure and a series of strategic challenges, according to Moody's Investors Service in its new industry...

Market Report: Latin America - Latin American markets moving forward.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Colombian premium income shows growth The Colombian market premium in 2004 was 6.2bn pesos ($2.6bn), 5.8% more than in 2003, reported the Colombian Department of Insurance. Non-life business grew by 3.5% to 3.8bn...

Technical report: TRIA - Aviation industry unflapped by uncertainty about TRIA.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Eric Alexander. A number of insurers, particularly those in the USA, have been getting concerned that no extension of the US Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) has yet been announced by the US Congress. The...

Brokers - Weathering the Spitzer storm.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer delivered a bolt from the blue to brokers when he charged the industry with improper practices. Almost six months later, the broking world is still dealing with the effects....

Market Report: US - Expansion and prediction.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Benfield launches facultative operation in Puerto Rico Benfield has expanded its capabilities in Puerto Rico with the launch of a facultative reinsurance operation offerimg facultative and treaty-broking services to...

Market Report: Asia - Slow growth in Japan but India has capacity.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Japan market still showing slow growth... The world's second-largest non-life market displayed very slow growth in recent years, mainly due to the weakness of the economy until recently and a near-zero inflation...

Broker risk - Risky business.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Evaluating risks is a difficult process for many companies in the market. Trying to find future trends in risks is even harder. Aon's latest risk report for 2005, entitled 'Illusions or Realities?', looks at a wide range...

Claims - USA - 2004 a record year for US P/C losses.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) US property/casualty insurers paid a record $27.3bn for insured property losses to homeowners and businesses from 22 catastrophic events last year - surpassing losses from 2001 that included the attack of September 11...

Claims - Weather - Insurance claims for damage by Australian storms could top A$100m.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Insurance claims for damage from the violent storms that lashed the eastern states of Australia at the start of February could top A$100m, according to insurers. Snow, hail, lightning, dust storms, raging winds,...

Franchising - Lloyd's escapes from the Last Chance Saloon.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Robert Miller. Currently, Lloyd's reputation is as high as it has ever been since the onset of its troubles in the late 1980s. In the late summer, it was upgraded by AM Best and Fitch, respectively from 'A-...

Claims - ABI warns of flood risk to planned housing expansion.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The ABI (Association of British Insurers) has published its recommendations to ensure that the government's plans for an extra 200,000 homes in the South-east by 2016 take into account the increasing risks from flooding...

Claims - Insured losses cover only 4% of tsunami damage.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) AON has published an update on the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami. According to the company, the M9.0 event was the strongest earthquake on the planet since 1964, and the fourth-largest since 1900....

Regulation - SEC to look at Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it will host a roundtable discussion in spring 2005, to look at registrants' and accounting firms' experiences implementing the new reporting requirements...

Regulation - Insurance Act amended on Bermuda.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Insurance Amendment Act 2004 has come into effect for the insurance industry on Bermuda. The Act, which amends the Insurance Act 1978, was passed by both the House of Assembly and the Senate of Bermuda soon after...

Recruitment - UK graduate market gets ever more competitive.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The graduate job market continues to grow in the UK, according to research published by the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters). Its survey of some of the UK's biggest employers shows that the number of graduate...

Regulation - LMA merger promises one voice for Lloyd's.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Lloyd's Market Association has merged with the Lloyd's Motor Underwriters' Association (LMUA). The move makes the LMA the one, definitive association responsible for representing the interests of all the managing...

Recruitment - Appointment at Association of British Insurers.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Association of British Insurers has announced the appointment of Stephen Haddrill as director-general in succession to Mary Francis. He will take up his position on 3 May. Mr Haddrill is currently director general of...

Recruitment - Appointment at AIR Worldwide Corporation.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) AIR Worldwide Corporation has added Glenn Hevron to its senior management team as vice-president of client software services. Mr Hevron succeeds Patricia Donahue, who joined AIR in 1998 and is now leaving to pursue...

Recruitment - Appointment at QBE.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) QBE has appointed Andrew McBride as claims director for its European commercial division (ECD). In this newly created role, working alongside the ECD's technical claims director, Paul Moss, he will take direct...

Recruitment - Appointment at Marsh.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Marsh has announced that Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chief executive of Marsh in the UK and Ireland, has been appointed president and chief executive of Marsh's Europe/Middle East operations. Mr Carnegie-Brown succeeds William...

Recruitment - Appointment at Guy Carpenter.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Guy Carpenter has announced that Michelle Harnick has been appointed to lead the firm's structured risk specialty practice. Ms Harnick, a managing director of the firm, will report to Peter Zaffino, global leader of Guy...

Recruitment - Appointment at Willis Re.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Willis Re has announced the appointment of Peter Hearn to the position of chief executive of Willis Re US. He assumes the position previously held by George Reeth, who has been named president of Willis North America. Mr...

Diary.
March 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) FEBRURARY 2005 28: Reinsurance Arbitration, New York, US, www.AmericanConference.com/rearb MARCH 2005 3-4: D&O Liability Insurance, London, England, www.C5-Online.com/directors 8-9: Association Run-Off...

Czech press survey.
March 1, 2005... (From Czech News Agency) PRAGUE, March 1 (CTK) - Pavel Verner in Pravo today writes that early elections, the slogan that the senior opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) have been repeating ad nauseum during the current government crisis, are...

Lebedev Blasts the Prosecution.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) Platon Lebedev, one of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's closest business partners, gave testimony for the first time in his eight-month trial Monday, avowing his innocence and slamming the prosecution for sloppy work. ...

Holiday Inn Cuts Ribbon in Moscow.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) With the opening of Holiday Inn Moscow Lesnaya next week, the city will finally get a branch of what could be the world's most recognizable hotel brand. The 12-story hotel, located on Lesnaya Ulitsa near...

Room for 8 Limos, 6 Horses and 2 Royal Palaces.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) It was designed with a rich Arab buyer in mind, but times have changed. Chances are high that Britain's most expensive property will be bought by a Russian. Dubbed the first stately home to be built in the...

Orient to Put Its Mark on Hotel.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) ST. PETERSBURG -- British hospitality chain Orient-Express Hotels has announced its first steps as the owners and managers of St. Petersburg's historic Grand Hotel Europe, in which it recently acquired a 93.5...

Vneshekonombank in $5.6Bln Question.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) State-owned Vneshekonombank may have funded a large part of the controversial purchase of Yuganskneftegaz through promissory notes, Vedomosti reported Monday. The volume of promissory notes from nonbanking...

Stroimontage Bucking Russia's Building Trend.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) ST. PETERSBURG -- Claiming a lack of potential on the domestic real estate market, St. Petersburg-based Stroimontage will continue to invest in foreign construction projects and diversify its business activities to...

News in Brief: Putin Picks Ipatov.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin has nominated Pavel Ipatov as the next Saratov governor, ultimately ruling out a new term for incumbent Dmitry Ayatskov, Interfax reported. The Saratov legislature is to confirm...

A Bush Deal and a Missing Paragraph.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) U.S. officials might be granted unprecedented access to Russian military nuclear facilities by the end of the year for inspections that Moscow previously fiercely opposed, according to a document that was briefly...

Iran May Soon Have Nukes.
March 1, 2005... (From The Moscow Times) Summit meetings between world leaders rarely end in complete disagreement. When a summit is arranged, the documents to be signed are drawn up in advance, ensuring at least a semblance of success. Last week in...