Europe Intelligence Wire articles from September 2005

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from September 2005

Editorial - This Goldilocks market is baffling.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Mark Geoghegan, editor, mark.geoghegan@incisivemedia.com. You know that on the ratings front, I'm a dyed-in-the wool pessimist, but in the late summer warmth, somewhere near the end of this exceptionally...

News - MetLife subpoenaed over broker compensation.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) MetLife has said that it has received a subpoena from Florida's attorney general and Oklahoma's insurance commissioner over broker compensation practices. New York-based MetLife disclosed the subpoenas in its...

News - AA in motor panel warning over changes.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Guy Anker. One of the UK's leading brokers has told insurers it will have to exclude them from its motor insurance panel if they remove 'driving other cars' cover. AA Insurance Services said omitting...

News - Travel insurance complaints rise again.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) 'Cowboy' travel insurance providers are being driven out of the market following Financial Services Authority regulation, it was claimed this week. The assertion came after the Financial Ombudsman Service reported...

News - Landmark deafness case gets go-ahead.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Stephanie Denton. QBE, Zurich and Norwich Union have received confirmation that a landmark test case for industrial deafness, which could see claims rise dramatically, is now set to go ahead. Following...

News - Katrina: "wishy washy" info.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Ed Vinales and Ralph Savage. UK insurers with large international energy exposures in the Gulf of Mexico could be hit, following last weekend's strike by Hurricane Katrina. Early estimates put the...

News - Zurich delays SME model.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Zurich has put back the implementation of the second stage of its small business model. The insurer, which has applied the principles to small fleet lines, had planned to extend the offering to its combined small...

News - Illium and Great Lakes team up.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Illium, the Lloyd's liability insurer, is expanding its capacity through a co-insurance arrangement with Great Lakes UK, a subsidiary of Munich Re. Colin Rogers, operations and marketing director for Illium, said...

News - Crashes could affect renewals.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The recent spate of plane crashes, and forecasts of severe hurricane damage this year, could destabilise the reinsurance renewals season, it was claimed this week. Forecasts for the new year renewals had suggested...

News - London Market moves closer to certainty.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The London Market will finally have access to a guidebook on contract certainty this month. The Lloyd's Market Association, the London Market Insurance Brokers' Committee, and the International Underwriting...

News - Moderniser takes helm at Ecclesiastical.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Steve Wood, the new general manager at Ecclesiastical Insurance's UK general insurance division, has promised to bring his leadership and skills as a moderniser to his role, which started today. Mr Wood, who has...

News - Composites get solo FSA check-ups.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Guy Anker. Composite intermediaries will be spared a series of arduous compliance inspections, as they can expect a single check-up for all regulated activities. The Financial Services Authority's...

News - Rates crisis must be averted.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Insurers must engage more with pharmaceutical firms to avert a rates crisis, it was claimed this week. Lyn Rossano, global broker Willis' head of life science practice for North America, insisted underwriters must...

News - Appointment at Royal and Sun Alliance.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Royal and Sun Alliance has appointed Norwich Union's head of direct pricing, Nathan Williams, as underwriting director of personal lines. Mr Williams' appointment begins on 14 November and he will form part of Adrian...

News - Appointment at Cox.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Cox insurance has appointed former Wellington Underwriting chief executive Julian Avery, left, as its new chairman. The appointment completes the senior management line-up at Cox, following the company's recent...

News - Appointment at Universal Salvage.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Universal Salvage is set to bid for more self-insured fleet business as part of a drive to boost its growth. The company - which is set to unveil a new corporate identity later this month that will see the word...

News - FSA takes corrective action.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The Financial Services Authority has taken corrective action against 130 firms, including a number of insurance brokers, in the past year, adding that 30 firms will lose or have their authorisation to do business...

News - Fitch affirms rating.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Fitch Ratings has affirmed Lloyd's Insurer Financial Strength rating of 'A'. At the same time, Fitch has affirmed related ratings for the Society of Lloyd's and the Society's GBP500m subordinated debt, which it issued...

News - Broker questions solicitors' outlook.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Ralph Savage. More than three-quarters of solicitors affected by fallout from the collapse of The Accident Group do not expect to see a rise in premium when they renew their professional indemnity. ...

News - NU targets new SME market for growth.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Norwich Union has followed other insurers, entering micro-business healthcare. The NU medical insurance range, Solutions, will be made available to micro-sized companies. Previously, only individuals and companies...

News - $300m deal is reached in US.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Equitas, the reinsurer created to run off the 1992 and prior year's liabilities of Lloyd's syndicates, has confirmed settlements for six policyholders at a cost of $300m (GBP167m). The reinsurer reached...

News - Towergate Partnership to be formally created.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The Towergate Partnership will be formally created at the end of October, after it received approval from the Financial Services Authority. Chief executive Andy Homer said: "We are well on course to hit our growth and...

Financial News - Investors push for small firm mergers.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Ralph Savage. The performance of the UK's smaller stock-market-listed insurers received praise from industry analysts this week, after it produced an average return of 13.5% to shareholders. Both...

Financial News - GE plans insurance withdrawal.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Global giant General Electric has confirmed it is planning to sell off all of its remaining insurance-related operations. Ron Pressman, chief executive of GE Insurance Solutions, said in a press conference that the...

Financial News - Fortis points finger at direct rivals.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Fortis has highlighted continued growth in its travel, small to medium-sized enterprise commercial and household books as positive news from its interim results. However, the insurer's core motor book saw gross...

Financial News - Jersey Financial Services Commission reveals licences.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The Jersey Financial Services Commission revealed it had 168 insurance licences as at 30 June 2005. To date, the Commission has received a further 72 applications, of which 62 have been fully registered. The remaining...

News Comment - Vioxx - A bitter pill.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Following the massive damages award made by a Texan court to the widow of a man who was prescribed Vioxx, lawyers are raising the prospect of a raft of further claims being brought on behalf of UK claimants (PM, 25...

Conference Preview - Industry reputation - What's in a name?
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) After he has been surreptitiously traduced by the conniving Iago, Othello's loyal lieutenant, Cassio, cries: 'O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.' ...

Conference Preview - Industry reputation - Industry with a past.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Let's face it - the insurance industry's public image is pretty appalling. A bad reputation is bad for business: if people do not trust you, they will not do business with you. In increasingly competitive...

People - 2005 Insurance five-a-side football.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The fifth annual Insurance 5's football competition will be held on 2 October at the Goals Soccer Centre, Wimbledon. Organised in association with Post Magazine, it is open to teams from any organisation involved in...

Postbox - Subsidence charter hollow and worthless.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) As one of the few loss assessors who have specialised in subsidence claims for the past 25 years, I read the 'Subsidence Focus' (PM, 25 August, pp12-18) with interest. During recent years, as with the handling of...

View from the Top - Underwriting discipline is only partly to blame.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Stephen Fitzgerald, managing director, DA Constable Syndicate. We know that underwriting conditions are becoming increasingly difficult and, naturally, the finger is pointing towards a failure in...

Comment - Industry calm as Katrina hits.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Although many claim it is too early to put an accurate estimate on the insured losses associated with Hurricane Katrina, that has not stopped some rushing to put a provisional figure on them. In the 'wait and see...

Comment - Insurance can make the drugs work.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) The impact of last month's Vioxx court decision on the insurance market has raised the issue of the role of insurance in different sectors. As Post Magazine reported last week, small pharmaceutical firms could be...

Property - Best Practice - Wheat from the chaff.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) In May this year, the domestic water damage restoration industry received a welcome boost with the publication of Publicly Available Specification 64, designed to formalise best practice across the industry. This...

Career Path - Charity campaign for trustees is launched.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Jonathan Swift. A campaign has been launched to get more employees in the financial services sector to become trustees of charities. Called Get on Board, it is backed by charity Timebank and the...

Career Path - 80% see stress as an "excuse".
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) According to a management report, almost 80% of bosses believe staff use stress as an "excuse" for absence from work. Research by executive communications consultancy The Aziz Corporation found that 92% of...

Career Path - Know your agency: Jon Gregory Insurance Recruitment.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) When was the firm established and how long has it worked in the insurance space? It's now into the fourth year of trading, having set out from the very start to specialise in insurance. Prior to this, I worked for 15...

HR: Claims Profession - A sea of change.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) There was a time when underwriters were held in high esteem and anyone else in the insurance industry was regarded as almost a second-class citizen. However, the attacks of 11 September 2001, coupled with the more...

People - Appointment at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran and Arnold.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Sedgwick, Detert, Moran and Arnold has appointed James Pilgrim-Morris as special counsel in the firm's London office. Mr Pilgrim-Morris has previously been a partner in two London firms. He has represented insurers,...

People - Events.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) 19-20 September - Institute of Risk Management risk forum. Keele University, Tel: 020 7709 9808, E-mail: riskforum@theirm.org, www.theirm.org 21 September - Cincom Systems seminar - Customer Value Management. Cafe...

Postscript - Aon looks to Malta to enhance captive share.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Byline: Guy Anker. Broking giant Aon has set its sights on Malta to boost its share of the captive market. Aon has plans to establish four new companies in Malta by the end of the year, claiming that the...

Postscript - Penny Black's insurance week.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) It is amazing who you bump into in the City while enjoying a spot of lunch with Post Magazine journalists. Last week, one of Penny's esteemed colleagues was dining with Alexander Forbes chief John Percy Davis when he...

Postscript - What the papers said this week.
September 1, 2005... (From Post Magazine) Daily Mail What motorists do for a living plays a big part in determining how much they pay for motor insurance, a survey has revealed. Comedians and choirmasters end up forking out GBP200 a year more than...

News - Spitzer inquiry widens to Moody's.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has subpoenaed Moody's for information on how it rates reinsurers and mortgage securities, broadening his probe of Wall Street practices. In its quarterly report filed with...

News - Marsh announces Cherkasky deal.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Marsh & McLennan has said that it will pay chief executive Michael Cherkasky at least $3.5m in salary and bonus for 2005 under a new three-year contract. Under the deal, Mr Cherkasky will receive long-term equity...

News - Munich Re results hit by American Re drain.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Munich Re's results for the first half of 2005 have been hit by the continuing need to strengthen the reserves of its subsidiary, American Re. The company posted a profit for the first half of the year of EUR870m,...

News - MMC CFO announces retirement date.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Marsh & McLennan Companies, (MMC) has announced that Sandra S. Wijnberg, senior vice president and chief financial officer, plans to resign from the company in March 2006. Michael Cherkasky, MMC's president and chief...

News - Vukelic gets fired from Faraday.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Berkshire Hathaway has confirmed that Milan Vukelic, the chief executive of the Faraday arm of the company's General Re subsidiary, has been dismissed. In December 2004, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) advised...

News - Am Best affirms Gerling companies ratings.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) AM Best has affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) of Gerling-Konzern Allgemeine Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft and its US subsidiary, Gerling America Insurance Company (GAIC). Concurrently, AM...

News - Goshawk braces for results roundup.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Goshawk has announced that its results for the first half of 2005 will be hit by higher than expected losses from last year's Hurricane Ivan. The company said that its marine account had been hit by...

News - New joint venture by Cooper Gay.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Cooper Gay Group, along with Michael W. Cashman, have created Cooper Gay & Cashman. This joint venture operation is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Mr Cashman serving as its chairman and chief...

News - Converium results show improvement.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Converium made a loss before taxes of $16.4m for the first half of 2005, a dramatic improvement on the previous year, when it registered a loss before taxes of $295m. Net income for the first six months of the year came...

Claims - North Dakota faces $100m bill from hail damage.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman has announced that the severe hailstorm that ripped through the Bismarck and Hettinger areas late last month caused in excess of $100m in damage to insured property. ...

Claims - TSR increases 2005 Atlantic storm forecast by 30%.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), has increased its forecast for Atlantic basin hurricane activity in 2005 by a further 30%. Based on current and projected climate signals, TSR's updated forecast release predicts Atlantic basin...

Claims - China mops up damage left by Typhoon Matsa.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Typhoon Matsa caused several billion yuan in losses as it ravaged East China's coastal area, initiating its path of destruction from Friday 5th August. The ninth typhoon to hit China this year weakened into a...

Technology - Aon Re and XL Re now using ACORD XML for business.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Aon Re has announced that it is now exchanging data electronically using ACORD XML messaging in production to communicate with one of its reinsurance partners, XL Re. ACORD, the Association for Cooperative Operations...

Technology - AIR upgrades web-based cat-risk management system.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Air Worldwide Corporation (AIR) has released the latest version of CATStation, its web-based catastrophe risk-management system. The firm claims its product now provides insurers with the improved ability to manage...

Regulation - New Australian code of practice introduced by ICA.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) A new code of practice has been introduced by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), which (according to them) will mean that general insurers will meet higher, measurable performance standards for dealing with...

Regulation - Spitzer calls for anti-trust act action.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) In comments filed with an obscure US federal commission, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office has submitted testimony saying that the 60-year-old McCarran-Ferguson Act is overdue for repeal. ...

Regulation - SEC considering Sarbanes-Oxley changes.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering additional relief for small companies in complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. At the start of August, the SEC's Advisory Committee on Smaller Public...

News analysis - In the long run, who'd be an aviation reinsurer?
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The aviation market has been in the news over the month of August as five losses in quick succession have shattered the peace of what was otherwise shaping up to be an exceptional year. First, on the 2nd of August,...

Rethink - Getting inside the mind of reinsurance.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Which issues are being mulled over and argued about by the global reinsurance industry? That's the question that we address in our rethink column about the major issues of the day. Once a fortnight, we ask the industry...

Inside View - Better run to keep up!
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Sal Zaffino, chairman and chief executive officer of Guy Carpenter & As a CEO, part of my job is to keep on top of trends affecting the business. In my view, the marketplace is changing at a record pace -...

Inside View - We all moan, but Monte Carlo is an essential event.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Henry Keeling, chief executive of reinsurance operations, XL Capital. The cajoling "you'll-enjoy-it-when-you-get-there" line is a standard threat/promise in the parental arsenal for use against foot-dragging...

Interview - Bossanova with Brazil's new broom.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Following the sacking of the board of the state-run reinsurance monopoly because of allegations of corruption, the new president of the Reinsurance Institute of Brazil (IRB) says he has taken the first step toward...

Monte Carlo - A beginners' guide to Monte Carlo.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Every year, the great and the good of the reinsurance industry decamp to the wilds of Monte Carlo for the annual Rendez-Vous, packing a great deal of work into a very small amount of time and an even smaller amount of...

Technical Report: Marine - Dutch marine market.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Historical background "Amsterdam is marine history in the Netherlands," says Eric Fischer, secretary general of the Dutch Association of Insurers, in his welcome to conference delegates. This history dates from the...

Technology debate - Everybody play with a single set of rules.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Alex Letts of RI3K Ltd stakes his claim to become the Google of reinsurance. Ever since Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in 1688, the reinsurance industry has determined its own pace of change and agenda. But...

Technology debate - Why London's new IT platforms could make bureaux obsolete.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Byline: Tony Illinesi. With the many initiatives, services and technology solutions available to support the London market, surely the time is right for a fresh look at the appointed ways the market is taking. Many...

Historic losses - Insurance claims that shook the industry.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) In the wake of the recent terror attacks that shook our capital, the UK is displaying resilience, humour and courage. The bombings at four of the capital's busiest stations and one on an iconic London red bus killed an...

Brokers - The age of the smaller broker.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Never have the smaller and medium-sized brokers had it so good. Who'd be a mega-broker today? In every territory you operate, you've got regulators breathing down your neck. And some of your most loyal customers are...

Compensation culture - Don't let the EU import US-style compensation culture!
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) MG: Is US tort reform likely at any time in the future? LH: In May I went over to see the American Tort Law Reform Association, and also spent some time with senators and congressmen talking through what is happening...

Global Review: Israel - How to harvest Israel's peace dividend.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The recent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - and the wider disengagement plan of which it is part - represents a major shift in the political landscape of the Middle East. On the Israeli side, the cautious optimism...

Global Review: LNG - Beware the LNG boom.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The energy industry has been positioning itself to profit in an energy economy fuelled increasingly by liquefied natural gas (LNG). This 'dash for gas' is on behalf of an abundant, relatively clean hydrocarbon that many...

Global Review: US - Greenberg contests AIG restatement.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Maurice Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group (AIG), has contested the insurer's $3.9bn profit restatement, telling investigators that much of it was unnecessary. In a memo to US...

Global Review: Asia - APRA release database information.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released the first reports based on policy and claims information for public and products liability (PL) and professional indemnity (PI) insurance from a new...

Global Review: Asia - Japan hit by tremor.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) A 7.2-magnitude earthquake has hit northeastern Japan, triggering tsunamis along the country's Pacific coast, collapsing buildings, knocking out power and shaking skyscrapers in Tokyo, more than 300km away. At least 36...

Insurance futures - Why reinsurance needs MORE speculation, not less.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Insurance is an industry unlike others. Insurance prices are not quoted in the financial press, and investors, traders and hedge-fund managers are unable to enter the market, buying the insurance commodity when it is...

Legal - Are your jurisdiction clauses safe?
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The nature of the reinsurance business is international, with parties to reinsurance contracts often being based in different countries. This means that the legal rules that determine where international disputes are...

Re-sume - A grape adventure.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Classes of business broked: Treaty Reinsurance for Latin America and Caribbean territories. When did you start in the broking business, and what was the market like then? When I started in 1991, it was in a...

Re-sume - Recruitment moves.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) Addleshaw Goddard has promoted Michael Green to Partner to help lead its reinsurance practice through the next important stages of its growth. Mr Green is one of 10 Addleshaw Goddard Associates to have been promoted to...

Reinsurance 2005: Survey of risk managers and reinsurance buyers - Introduction.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) The market's grasp of risk has changed a great deal in recent years, mainly because the amount of information available has increased and the understanding of how risk works has deepened. Risk models that look at a wide...

Reinsurance 2005: Survey of risk managers and reinsurance buyers - State of the cycle.
September 1, 2005... (From Reinsurance) We asked reinsurance buyers and risk managers to identify which lines continue to see price rises. Respondents could choose as many lines as they liked. This year, 21% of reinsurance buyers and 16% of risk managers said...