Latest France Headlines

Willis, France’s Gras Savoye Create Willis Gras Savoye Re

Sep 12 2005 // Willis Group Holdings and Gras Savoye, a leading French insurance broker, announced that they have agreed to join their respective French and Belgian reinsurance businesses in a new Paris-based company, Willis Gras Savoye...

Sep 5 2005 // Extreme Weather Hits Europe: Devastating wild fires in Portugal; torrential rains in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Romania; drought in much of France. There seems to be no end to the list of extreme weather conditions...

International Newsbriefs

Sep 5 2005 // Extreme Weather Hits Europe: Devastating wild fires in Portugal; torrential rains in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Romania; drought in much of France. There seems to be no end to the list of extreme weather conditions...

Extreme Weather Hits Europe

Aug 23 2005 // Devastating fires in Portugal; torrential rains in Switzerland, Austria and Romania; drought in much of France – the list of extreme weather conditions continues to grow in Europe. No contrast is more vivid than...

UPDATE: 160 Confirmed Dead in Venezuelan Air Crash

Aug 17 2005 // As the deadly series of plane crashes continued – 4 since Aug. 2 – rescue workers continued to comb the wreckage of the West Caribbean MD-82 that went down yesterday in Venezuela, near the Colombian border. All...

International Newsbriefs

Jul 4 2005 // EU Leaders Fiddle While Europe Burns: The crisis in the European Union, provoked when French and Dutch voters rejected the EU Constitution, is being largely ignored by Europe’s leaders. Instead of a bit of...

EU Leaders Fiddle while Europe Burns

Jun 17 2005 // One would have thought that the crisis in the European Union, provoked when French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed EU Constitution, might have caused a bit of soul-searching and reassessment on the part of...

The Revenge of the Voters – France Rejects EU Constitution

May 30 2005 // Seventy percent of the eligible voters in France expressed their opinion on Sunday, May 29 – a turnout not seen in any recent election. Fifty-five percent of them voted a resounding ‘NO’ to the proposed...

European Nations Offer Lessons in Insuring Catastrophes and Terrorism

Apr 18 2005 // GAO Study Explores Examples of How Public-Private Insurance Partnerships Operate A new U.S. government report indicates that the private U.S. insurance industry would be placed under enormous strain without government...

French Billionaire Denies Conspiring to take over Executive Life

Apr 7 2005 // Through two different translators, French mogul Francois Pinault sought to make one point universally clear to the federal jury hearing the civil suit over failed insurer Executive Life: He did nothing wrong. Testifying in...

New GAO Study: U.S. Needs Government Help to Insure for Catastrophes and Terrorism

Mar 31 2005 // A new U.S. government report indicates that the private U.S. insurance industry would be placed under enormous strain without government intervention if there were a major terrorist or catastrophic event or series of...

Paris Airport Roof Structure to be Replaced

Mar 18 2005 // Aeroports de Paris (ADP), the authority that owns and operates both the Charles de Gaulle airport and Orly airport in the French capital, has determined that the entire roof structure of Terminal 2E must be torn down and...

Report Cites Design and Structural Faults as Cause of Paris Airport Collapse

Feb 16 2005 // Both structural and design faults caused a large section of the newly constructed Terminal 2E at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport to collapse last May, killing 4 people and injuring 3. An investigative commission...

Best Affirms Generali Ratings; Outlook Now Stable

Jan 21 2005 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the financial strength rating of “A+” (Superior) and assigned an issuer credit rating of “aa-” to Italy’s largest insurer Assicurazioni Generali...

U.K., France to Amend Death Declaration Laws

Jan 17 2005 // The U.K., France and other European countries whose citizens lost their lives, or are still missing, in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunamis, are considering ways to amend their laws governing when a missing person...

GE Insurance Solutions Details Additions to Global Management Staff

Nov 18 2004 // GE Insurance Solutions has announced the addition of expertise to its Property Insurance & Services, Global Asset Protection business unit. Field Operations Leader Tim Heinze said the unit has had a “great...

French Asbestos Verdict Compensates Miners

Oct 26 2004 // A French administrative court under the jurisdiction of the national health service has ordered the owners of an abandoned asbestos mine in Corsica to pay compensation to 13 former miners and their families as a result of...

AGF Posts Record $660 Million 1st Half Net

Aug 16 2004 // AGF, the French subsidiary of Germany’s Allianz Group, announced record first half net income of 532 million euros ($660 million), and annualized return on equity of 16.3 percent. “The AGF Group is in line with...

S&P Raises Aviva’s French Unit to ‘AA-‘

Aug 12 2004 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings announced that it has raised its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on non-life French insurer Aviva Assurances S.A. to ‘AA-‘ from...

SCOR Offers Convertible Bonds

Jun 28 2004 // France’s SCOR Group announced that it would offer 180 million euros ($218 million) worth of 4.125 percent unsecured convertible bonds within the French market. SCOR’s bulletin stressed that no offering of the...