Latest France Headlines
All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.
SCOR Sets Agenda for “Back on Track” Plan; May Sell Bermuda Operation
Jan 23 2003 // Denis Kessler, who recently took over as the head of France’s SCOR Group, revealed additional measures to implement his “Back on track Plan” for the company at yesterday’s Board of Directors...
Warnings Abound as Winter Hits Europe
Jan 6 2003 // Blizzards in France, floods in the U.K. and Germany, avalanches in the Alps – winter hit Europe particularly hard over the weekend. An unusually heavy snowfall in Northern France shut down the country’s main...
A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of AGF, Groupama
Dec 24 2002 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed its “Superior” ratings on two of France’s largest general insurers. Yesterday it confirmed the A++ (Superior) rating of Assurances Generales de France (AGF), but kept it under...
BNP Buys French Gov’t. Share of Credit Lyonnais for $2.2 Billion
Nov 25 2002 // France’s second largest bank, BNP Paribas, emerged as the winner of a surprise auction by the French government for its 10.9 percent share in Credit Lyonnais (CL), France’s fifth largest bank. Following a...
RMS Estimates Windstorm Jeanett May Cause $983 Million in Total Damages
Oct 31 2002 // California-based Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS), announced that the windstorm, designated Jeanett, which has hit the U.K., France, and the rest of northern Europe over the last several days may cause up to 1 billion...
Windstorms Batter U.K., France
Oct 28 2002 // Emergency Workers in Southern England and Northwest France were busy Monday morning cleaning up the debris and beginning infrastructure repairs after the passage of a powerful windstorm over the weekend blew down power...
S&P Revises Outlook on France’s MMA to Negative
Oct 14 2002 // Standard & Poor’s announced that it has revised its outlook on the single-‘A’-minus financial strength and counterparty credit ratings on the French p/c insurer Les Mutuelles du Mans Assurances IARD,...
Investigators Confirm French Supertanker Was Hit by Terrorist Attack
Oct 11 2002 // An official bulletin from the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that a team of French and U.S. investigators had found definitive evidence that the explosion and fire that engulfed the supertanker Limburg in the Gulf of...
Cause of French Tanker Blast/Fire Still Unknown
Oct 9 2002 // Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion and fire which ravaged the French supertanker Limburg, killing one crewman, in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday. The ship’s captain, Hubert Ardillon, told...
£150 Million Preliminary Estimate of Insured Losses in French Floods
Sep 12 2002 // The cost to France’s insurance industry from the severe flooding in three southeastern departments (See Insurance Journal Website Sept.10) will be around £150 million ($147 million) according to preliminary...
16 Dead, 18 Missing as Storms Hit Southern France
Sep 10 2002 // Thunderstorms of unprecedented intensity struck Southern France Sunday night and Monday, causing widespread flooding and knocking out road and rail transportation throughout the region. 16 people were killed as a direct...
S&P Revises Outlook on France’s Abeille to Positive
Jun 26 2002 // Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on French non-life insurer Abeille Assurances to “positive” from stable.” The change, said S&P, reflects “the likelihood of an upgrade by...
Non-adversarial Adjusters Advising Claimants Are Practicing Law, Court Rules
Jun 6 2002 // The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that an insurance claims adjuster who develops a non-adversarial relationship with a person filing a claim and advises that person on settling the claim is practicing law. An adjuster...
S&P Negative on Future of French P/C Insurance Market
Apr 22 2002 // Standard & Poor’s announced that it has a divided outlook for the French insurance market, “taking a negative view of its non-life sector and heralding a stable future for the country’s life...
French Insurer’s Net Profit Drops by Half in 2001
Mar 5 2002 // According to a report by the Associated Press, French insurer Axa SA’s net profit will decrease to 1.2 billion euros (about $1 billion), more than half in 2001, as quoted by Chairman Henri de Castries in the French...
Concorde Crash Report Confirms Lost Part as Proximate Cause
Jan 18 2002 // The Bureau Enquêtes Accident (BEA), the investigation agency charged with examining the crash of the Air France supersonic Concorde near Paris in July 2000, has released its final report. It confirms that the plane...
CGNU Nears Deal w/ Groupama on French Commercial Lines
Jan 7 2002 // As earlier reported (see IJ Website Dec. 27), CGNU is close to concluding a deal to sell its French commercial lines business, CGU Courtage, to French mutual insurer Groupama. The transaction highlights the restructuring...
Sales and Acquisitions in French Insurance Market
Dec 27 2001 // A flurry of year end transactions is changing the face of the French insurance market. The MMA-MAAF Group has reportedly agreed to acquire the French units of Swiss based Winterthur Group. CGU Courtage, the commercial...
The World’s New Respect for the U.S.
Dec 24 2001 // Remarkably few events are timed precisely enough to shift the focus of an entire nation. In the last century only three come immediately to mind—August 1914, October 1929 and December 1941. While change is the only true...
The World’s New Respect for the U.S.
Dec 17 2001 // Remarkably few events are timed precisely enough to shift the focus of an entire nation. In the last century only three come immediately to mind—August 1914, October 1929 and December 1941. While change is the only true...
