Europe Intelligence Wire articles from October 2005

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from October 2005

Editorial - Try and make a price rise stick - and see what happens to your book.(Editorial)
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Mark Geoghegan, editor, mark.geoghegan@incisivemedia.com. Dear Friend, Sometimes as an industry it seems that we let events start to dictate the agenda to us - and we've had events aplenty in 2005 - 64...

News - Mawar strikes Japan.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) A powerful typhoon has struck near Tokyo, Japan, killing one person and injuring at least two. Typhoon Mawar brought winds of 108km/h (67mph) and heavy rain, triggering flood warnings for the Tokyo region. Several...

News - GE confirms (re)-insurance sell-off plan.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) General Electric (GE) is reportedly planning to sell off all of its remaining (re)insurance operations. Ron Pressman, chief executive of GE Insurance Solutions, said in a press conference that the parent company was...

News - Hannover Re hit hard by Katrina.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Hurricane Katrina is possibly set to become the most-expensive-ever natural disaster suffered by insurers in industry history, according to Hannover Re. Estimates of the total insured losses currently amount to $30bn....

News - Global reinsurance sector stable, claims Fitch.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Fitch Ratings' latest global report has maintained its 'stable' rating outlook on the global reinsurance sector. Fitch believes that the sector's underwriting, operating and capital trends over the next 12-24 months...

News - Willis and Gras Savoye create new company.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Willis Group and Gras Savoye are joining their respective French and Belgian reinsurance businesses in a new Paris-based company, Willis Gras Savoye Re. Gras Savoye has been an Associate of Willis since 1997, when...

News - Gen Re's Brandon served Wells notice.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Berkshire Hathaway has announced that on 8 September 2005, Joseph Brandon, CEO of General Reinsurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, received a "Wells notice" from the staff of the Securities and...

News - Plumeri calls for action on TRIA.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Joe Plumeri, chairman and chief executive of Willis Group, has issued a rallying cry for the extension of TRIA and for changes to the way that (re)insurance is regulated in the US. Speaking at a seminar on global...

News - BHRC brings out new hazard and risk review.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Benfield Hazard Research Centre has published its latest hazard and risk science review at the annual Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo. The review, which has been jointly sponsored by Benfield and Partner Re, provides...

Claims news - Zurich issues estimate for European flooding bill.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) has announced that, based on preliminary estimates, it expects aggregate claims payments related to the recent floods affecting Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria of...

Claims news - Hurricane Katrina ups claims-settlements pressure.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Insurance companies are likely to come under political pressure to pay claims arising from Hurricane Katrina early and without dispute, according to Robert Cooney, president and chief executive officer of Bermuda-based...

Claims news - Nabi batters Japan.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Tropical storm Nabi lashed northern Japan at the start of September, after causing at least 18 deaths across the country. The storm brought winds of up to 90km/h (56mph) and severe rain to the northern island of...

Technology news - Kinnect bosses quit.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Lloyd's has confirmed the resignations of Toby Davies and Iain Saville as chief executive and executive chairman of Kinnect, respectively. Lloyd's has opted to re-code the project with new technology suppliers, and...

Technology news - ISO enhances NetMap.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) ISO has enhanced its NetMap for ClaimsTM software with several new functions to empower claims investigators with more robust search capabilities for improved claims investigations. The new NetMap for Claims Version...

Technology news - Markel launches new quotations service.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Markel UK, the retail division of Markel International, has developed MarkelUKon-line, its on-line quotations system, so that brokers will now be able to bind professional, management and specialty risks on-line. ...

Technology news - Xchanging and RI3K announce checking deal.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Xchanging and RI3K have announced an initiative to allow early checking of contracts on-line. The early checking service, XPressCheck, will allow subscriber reinsurers to have their reinsurance policy wordings checked...

Technology news - Willis teams up with Highline Data.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Willis Group Holdings and Highline Data LLC have teamed up to develop and distribute analytical reports on insurance entities. The reports will provide details on historical financial performance, including...

Regulation news - NAMIC praises consumer-protection moves.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) An analysis by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) has praised a new legal standard adopted in both Kansas and Texas in 2005 as an effective tool to balance consumer protection with the...

Regulation news - APRA releases new IFRS paper.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released the second of two discussion papers setting out its proposed prudential response to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by...

Regulation news - Asbestos bill fund too small, says CBO.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) A $140bn asbestos-compensation fund being considered by Congress might be too small to cover all the claims of asbestos victims over the next 50 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The proposed...

Rethink - Alea's downgrade won't stop you using them, and models can't be trusted.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Straight into a surprising result - we asked you if you thought that a one-notch downgrade of Alea would stop you from doing business with the firm. After the well-publicised trials of Converium and SCOR, one might have...

News analysis: Hurricane Katrina - Why should Katrina be a market-turning event?
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The week before Monte Carlo, at the presentation of Fitch Ratings' annual outlook for the global reinsurance industry in 2005, the guest of honour was Rolf Tolle, franchise performance director at Lloyd's. Rolf unleashed...

Katrina Picture Special - Katrina damage: seeing is believing.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) In the days following the landfall of Katrina, AIR dispatched three teams of engineers to assess the damage. They visited affected towns throughout the hurricane's wide swathe of damage, which covered parts of Florida,...

Inside View - Give us some uniformity!
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Geoffrey Bromley, chairman, Europe and Asia for Guy Carpenter. Measures of capital adequacy have moved from relatively simplistic leverage ratios to more complex, risk-based standards in global regulatory...

Inside View - Don't look backwards to rate the future!
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Henry Keeling is chief executive of reinsurance operations, XL European floods and the Atlantic hurricane season are, once again, combining to produce 'one-in-every-100-years' events, and there is an...

Interview - Integro sprints ahead.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Roger Egan, Integro's chief executive officer, told Reinsurance Magazine that he is on the brink of opening a London office that will be fully staffed and operational in time for the January renewals. Egan said the...

Monte Carlo round table - Monte Carlo round table.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) This year's Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous once again witnessed a meeting of some of the best and brightest of the reinsurance industry at a round table hosted by Reinsurance and PricewaterhouseCoopers. As in previous...

Baden-Baden preview - Why this year's meeting is going to be hard work.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Until late August, this year's renewal season was shaping up to be rather dull and predictable. In fact, it looked set to be largely a wrangle about price, with direct insurers faced with declining insurance rates trying...

Technology report - Modelling the Future.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) As Katrina made its ominous way toward landfall near New Orleans, it was being watched by a large number of eyes, many of them electronic. Working out where a hurricane is going is now a vitally important part of the...

Global Review: Product liability - Why food risk is now a global opportunity.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Jeremy Golden. Beware of what you eat - in February this year, more than 450 food products in the UK had to be taken off the shelves after being found contaminated with an illegal food dye. The Sudan I...

Global Review: Latin America and Spain - Argentina - One in four malpractice suits succeeds.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Although 75% of medical malpractice rulings are against the plaintiffs, medical professionals believe the number of lawsuits will increase strongly soon. In Buenos Aires' public hospitals, lawsuits against obstetricians...

Global Review: Latin America and Spain - Mexico - Premium income up 1.1% in 2005.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Total premium income in Mexico increased to $64m between June 2005 and June 2004, reaching $5.87bn (+1.1%). Cessions to reinsurers fell to $241m - about 20.3% less than at June 2004 - while retained premium increased by...

Global Review: Latin America and Spain - El Salvador - Mapfre plans to open new offices.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Mapfre La Centroamericana - the group's subsidiary - has been opening branches in the main cities in an effort to fight low insurance penetration, as only 8% of the population has some type of insurance policy. La...

Global Review: Latin America and Spain - Peru - UK brokers enter the market.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) After the UK's Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group entered the Peruvian insurance market through a strategic alliance with Mariategui Heath Lambert Corredores de Seguros, Willis Group Holdings, has followed suit by by...

Global Review: Latin America and Spain - Spain - 2004: Uninsured vehicles caused EUR113m damages.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Vehicles traveling on Spain's roads without their mandatory insurance in force caused a total of EUR113m losses, which were paid by Consorcio de Compensacion de Seguros (CCS - Insurance Compensation Fund), an agency that...

Global Review: Global Review: India - A passage to India.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Background Since the turn of the millennium, India has been steadily moving away from micro-managing the insurance market and allowing the private sector to compete. Before the year 2000, insurance was...

Legal - Why you can't reject a late notification unless you can show prejudice.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) In the recent decision of Sirius v Friends Provident, the Court of Appeal has closed a door previously left ajar in Alfred MacAlpine v BAI (Runoff). The court confirmed that unless a claims notification clause is...

Legal - What you must know about hours clauses disputes.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The scale of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina has been such that it is still only possible to guess at its financial impact. Clearly the catastrophe will have huge ramifications for reinsurers worldwide....

Finite - The perverse message from Planet Spitzer.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Not content with his campaign against the global insurance brokers, Mr Spitzer has launched a broad frontal attack on American International Group (AIG) - long recognised as the smartest firm in an admittedly not very...

Resume -Recruitment moves.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Willis Group Holdings has announced the appointment of Scott Brandi as senior vice-president in the MountainGuard Programme based in Glen Falls, New York. Brandi joins from Associates of Glen Falls, where he was senior...

Diary - Reinsurance diary.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) OCTOBER 2005 2-5 Risk Management Forum 2005; Lisbon, Portugal; FERMA +32 (0)2 227 11 44; info@ferma-asso.org; www.ferma-asso.org 19-21 19th International Reinsurance Congress; Fairmont Hamilton; Hawksmere; +44...

Europe Supplement 2005 - It's time to head east.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The EU now has 25 member states and is set to keep growing. It's even going to implement a reinsurance directive to ensure a level playing field. The potential for growth in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is...

Europe Supplement 2005 - How to pick the winners and losers in Central and Eastern Europe.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The opening up of the insurance markets in CEE over the past 15 years has led to the development of a number of regional reinsurers based in and around the region specialising in providing reinsurance to CEE primary...

Europe Supplement 2005 - Why Slovenia is my choice for a great next five years.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Background Slovenia is one of the 10 countries that joined the European Union (EU) in May last year and is continuing to manifest smooth adjustment to EU practices. Although the country has not yet joined the...

Europe Supplement 2005 - My top European reinsurance dos and don'ts.
October 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Although there are no 'sure-fire winners' for growing reinsurance business in Europe over the next five years, there are some definite tracks to failure, some interesting opportunities and some good ways to approach...

ONE YEAR SINCE NEW DISABILITY LAWS BUT ATTITUDES STILL NEED TO.
October 1, 2005... (From Government News Network (Was Hermes-Government Press Releases)) ] DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS DRC-7 30 September 2005 ONE YEAR SINCE NEW DISABILITY LAWS BUT ATTITUDES STILL NEED TO CHANGE As recent rights for disabled people...

CUSTOMERS SEE GREEN ON FUEL BILLS.
October 1, 2005... (From Government News Network (Was Hermes-Government Press Releases)) ] DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY P/2005/309 1 October 2005 CUSTOMERS SEE GREEN ON FUEL BILLS From tomorrow electricity customers can see for the first time how...

Gervais rails at cancer ad censorship.
October 1, 2005... (From Guardian Unlimited) Ricky Gervais has hit out at a decision to censor his new radio advert for a prostate cancer charity and restrict it to post-watershed transmission times. The star of The Office and Extras described the...

MARKETMOVERS : Tysabri hopes a tonic for Elan as shares up 13pc.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) DRUGMAKER Elan topped the list of winners on the Dublin stock market this week after its shares gained 13pc. Analysts said the gain came on expectations of news regarding the return of its multiple sclerosis...

Markets.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) A VERY good week for Irish equities ended yesterday with solid gains across the board. Dublin's ISEQ Overall index rose by 0.9pc or 58 points and is once more back over the 6,800 barrier. This took the week's gain...

African Gold details deal with Zimbabwean gold firm.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) AFRICAN Gold yesterday announced details of its proposed acquisition of a Zimbabwean gold producer and the readmission of its shares to the AIM market in London. The deal will see shareholders in Mwana end up...

BUSINESS WEEK : 'Landslide' vote at Jurys Doyle egm.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) JURYS Doyle group shareholders approved by a landslide at Tuesday's egm the sale of two of its hotels to developer Sean Dunne for 260m. The move paves the way for Mr Dunne to tear down the Jurys Ballsbridge...

Smart Telecom reports 11.2m first-half losses.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) Company's net debt stands at 14m, cash at bank and in hand is 2.3m SMART Telecom racked up losses of 11.2m for the six months ended June 2005, compared with a figure of 4.4m in the same period of 2004 and is...

Demand for credit in August surges ahead by 28.2pc.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) DEMAND for credit surged ahead by 28.2pc during August and, just as in July, it was demand for consumer credit which was the main driver behind the 4.2bn rise. While non-mortgage credit was the main driver...

Ryanair may challenge charges.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) RYANAIR may mount a legal challenge to this week's decision by Bill Prasifka, the aviation regulator, to allow Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to increase passenger charges by 22pc, Michael O'Leary said yesterday....

Irish Estates shares are up 46pc on market debut.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) SHARES in Irish Estates Group, the largest property management company in the country, rose by 46pc yesterday after it began trading on the stock exchange's IEX market for small and medium-sized companies. The...

Another personnel blow for BIAM team.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) BANK of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) has been dealt a further blow with the loss of one of its most senior executive directors, Ronan Smith. His pending departure follows the loss of Jennifer Byron, an...

BUSINESS IN BRIEF : Ramco sees GBP1.6m first half loss as turnover slides.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) RAMCO, the Aberdeen-based oil and gas exploration company which is in the process of selling the Seven Heads gasfield off Cork, has turned in a loss after tax of GBP1.6m for the six months ended June 30, 2005 on...

Fyffes in Colombian venture for US market.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) FYFFES has entered into a joint venture with a Colombian fruit firm in a bid to boost sales of its super sweet pineapples to the US market. The 50/50 venture is with Uniban SA and will be operated through the...

DCC reveals impact of IFRS.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) DCC, which describes itself as "the value added sales, marketing and business support services group" has announced the impact of the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on its 2005...

Russia's 'iron fist under velvet glove' moves up world's rich list.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) NEWSMAKER OF THE WEEK: ROMAN ABRAMOVICH ROMAN Abramovich was as impassive as ever, despite having the dubious pleasure of sitting through last Wednesday's UEFA Champions' League anti-climactic clash at Anfield....

Sinn Fein must move now on policing and criminality.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) THERE are two outstanding issues to be clarified in an acceptable way in the months ahead if talks towards the restoration of government in Northern Ireland are to start at all. The first of them is the...

Sharon's gamble on Gaza fails to stop terrorists.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) IN his heyday Ariel Sharon was a brilliant military commander, without whose talents Israel might not have survived the massive attacks on it by five Arab enemies bent on destroying it, in the weeks immediately...

A victory for common sense.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) THE Rossport Five were released yesterday after 94 days behind bars. That was at least 90 days too long for a group of decent men who clearly had no agenda other than to protect their families from what they saw as...

That's rich.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) AS ever, the figures from the Central Statistics Office yesterday make fascinating reading, providing more insight into the way we are changing than an armful of sociology studies. Smoking continues to decline,...

FROM THERE TO HERE.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) 1975: Becomes manager of St Mirren. 1978: Appointed manager of Aberdeen and helps break the Celtic-Rangers duopoly, going on to win two Scottish league titles and one European Cup Winners Cup trophy. 1986:...

FERGIE: reprieve ... or stay of execution?
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) The Theatre of Dreams became a theatre of boos last week as Manchester United fans turned against Alex Ferguson. Despite a win on Tuesday, he faces a battle to keep his job, says James Lawton Suddenly, Old...

Andie steps out in style on Tara Road.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) BT's helped roll out the red carpet at Thursday night's world premiere ofTara Road as the stars dazzled at the Savoy on O'Connell Street in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation. For once the leading players of...

Unity by 2016:.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) What's the secret Sinn Fein game plan after this week's historic destruction of arms? Justine McCarthy reports When the IRA attempted to decimate the British Tory party by bombing its conference hotel in...

could it really happen?
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) undertaking that the British government will legislate for Irish unity if 50pc-plus-one of the North's voters want it. The last census in April 2001 categorised 43.76pc of the North's 1,685,267 citizens as...

FAREWELL TO ARMS 3 : The killers still in our our midst.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) South Armagh bore witness to some of the most brutal killings of the Troubles. Willie Dillon visits a community surrounded by dark secrets and raw tragedy On a quiet country road in South Armagh, William...

FAREWELL TO ARMS 4 : The Provo gun with a terrible power . . .
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) The rifles and Semtex may be gone, but, as Michael Mulqueen explains, the threat posed by some weapons shaped the peace process while others were virtually defunct The Provisional IRA had only one type of rifle...

MAD DOG: the ultimate neighbour from hell.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) It was a quiet, non-descript suburb of the grim northern English town of Bolton - until the neighbours from hell arrived. Infamous Loyalist terror boss Johnny Adair fled from a deadly Belfast feud with his...

The investigation into Rachel O'Reilly's murder has taken many twists and turns but 12 months after the young mother was bludgeoned to death, her killer is still at e, reports CoConor Feehan.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) It was a brutal murder that shocked the nation. When young mother-of-two Rachel O'Reilly was bludgeoned to death in her north Dublin home, it led to an intensive murder investigation, every detail of which has been...

Movers & sheikhs.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) They say John Magnier likes it when people struggle to pronounce his name. Especially when they're journalists. Should it be Man-ee-er like a French infinitive, pondered the British press earlier this year when...

The lost snapshot of an Ireland they didn't want you to see.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) Peter Lennon's ground-breaking film from the 1960s, The Rocky Road to Dublin, has re-emerged after being restored. It was both a unique record of Irish social history and a victim of it, writes Philip Molloy ...

The Galway girls are going for their second successive All-Ireland final tomorrow and the whole county is behind them. Brian McDonald reports on the grit and glamour f ladies' foofootball.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) You might be forgiven for thinking Galway people are a sloppy, forgetful lot. The All-Ireland hurling final was fully three weeks ago and still they have the maroon and white flags hanging from pubs, clubs and...

Daggers at 40 paces in the Dail.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) As the Oireachtas resumed this week after its summer recess, Mary Minihan looks back at some of the good, the bad and the ugly spats of recent years TDs spent the long summer break toughening their hides in...

The great Roman empire.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) Already the richest man in Britain, the personal fortune of Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich increased by almost 11bn this week. John Meagher reports It was a moment that may have given Roman Abramovich...

HOW HE SPENDS, SPENDS, SPENDS ...
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) How does a man of Abramovich's incredible wealth actually spend his money? Read on... Yachts - 340m. He owns four luxury yachts, each one a top-of-the-range world class model. One boasts a missile detection...

Why rebel Jimmy is still the ultimate hero.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) He made just three films, but since his death 50 years ago James Dean has held his place in the modern imagination as a rebel and an icon. Myles McWeeney finds out why He's a legend who leaves modern-day...

DESTINATIONS : 2.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) * Backpackers heading to America in the hope of finding a hotel room when they arrive will have to rethink their travel arrangements from next week. New rules to be introduced on October 4 insist that airlines...

Why Scorsese's Dylan struck such a chord.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) Towards the very end of Martin Scorsese's documentary on Bob Dylan, the singer-songwriter, stranded in the bleak midwinter of an English tour, said plaintively "I just want to go home," but one of the main themes...

RADIO Pat Stacey : Rebel with a plan.
October 1, 2005... (From Irish Independent) Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the death of James Dean, killed at 24 when his silver Porsche Spyder 550, which he'd nicknamed 'Little Bastard', ploughed into a bigger, heavier car on a straight stretch of...