Merger may cost $45 billion
20 March 2001
Major British insurer Prudential will pay $45 billion to buy insurer American General Corp, and is now having to appeal for support from institutional investors…
International
US drops bankruptcy clause
20 March 2001
Lloyd’s has managed to convince US legislators not to protect local investors who owe the London market money…
AXA leans on life division
20 March 2001
French insurance giant Axa has recorded a net profit for 2000 of 2.2 billion Euros – but no thanks to its property and casualty businesses…
Zurich goes to Scotland for banking
20 March 2001
Swiss insurer Zurich has made its first tentative steps into the retail banking market with an announcement that it will set up a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland…
Premium rises are now global
06 March 2001
Premium rises are now being recorded around the world as underwriters greet the upswing in the insurance cycle…
UK insurers admit poor service
06 March 2001
You’ll never hear this at a conference in Australia… Senior managers of British underwriters attending a brokers’ conference in Britain have admitted their service levels are below standard…
Floods dampen CGNU profit
06 March 2001
As predicted last week, giant British insurer CGNU has recorded a slightly smaller profit on last year’s figure, mainly as a result of floods in Britain and storms in Europe…
Pru, L&G report profits
06 March 2001
No 2 British insurer Prudential reported an 8% rise in profits to $2.3 billion, demonstrating that a flat UK market and a tough US market are being offset by the company’s strategy…
Another ailing Japanese life insurer sold
27 February 2001
Japanese life insurers continue to experience a horror stretch of crippling losses, with 12th largest Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance falling to American giant AIG…
Lower profits tipped for Britain's big 3
27 February 2001
Storms across Europe during 2000 are expected to impact on the returns of Britain’s three largest insurers when they report their annual results this week…
Sovereign signs off with a smile
27 February 2001
New Zealand financial services company Sovereign Limited – which has now merged with Colonial – has returned its last financial results…
New NRMA firm does well
27 February 2001
State Insurance, the newly acquired NZ arm of NRMA, has recorded an after-tax profit of $NZ31.3 million on net premiums of $NZ344.2 million…
Online reinsurer attracts Scor
20 February 2001
French reinsurer Scor has signed up to join inreon, the independent internet-based reinsurance exchange…
Fortis moves into Malaysia
20 February 2001
Malaysia’s largest banking group has agreed to sell 30% of its insurance businesses to Dutch/Belgian financial services company Fortis…
Insurers' pact probed
20 February 2001
One of Europe’s largest insurers, Italian firm Assicurazioni Generali, is in big trouble over comments attributed to its chief executive alleging a…
ACE beats its own forecast
20 February 2001
ACE Ltd has recorded a 61% rise in profits for the last quarter of 2000…
More Winterthur business sold
20 February 2001
Bermuda-based XL Capital will buy the large corporate insurance business of Credit Suisse for $US600 million…
Canada joins reform push
13 February 2001
Canada is the latest country to introduce wide-ranging reforms to its financial services sector…
Quake costs
13 February 2001
Further to our item last week on January’s earthquake in the Indian state of Gujurat, local general insurers have now revised the assessment of their exposure…
Quake bill for indian insurers
06 February 2001
Many of the thousands of buildings flattened by last Friday’s earthquake in the Indian state of Gujurat are insured, although the total payout is expected to be modest by…