Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
RIMS: Soft Market Takes Hold as Commercial Premiums Decline 15%
Jul 15 2004 // In the continuing march toward a soft market, most commercial insurance buyers renewed their policies at the same or lower premiums last quarter, according to a survey of corporate risk managers. Data from the survey shows...
Plan to Boost Foreign Investments in India’s Insurance Industry Comes Under Fire
Jul 13 2004 // The new Congress-led government in New Delhi faces a tough test ahead as a key Communist Party ally has come out against its proposal to raise the cap on foreign investment in India’s telecommunications, aviation and...
Consumer Group Claims NAMIC Study on Credit Scoring ‘Flip-Flops’ Earlier Positions
Jul 9 2004 // The consumer group, Center for Economic Justice (CEJ), released a statement in response to a National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) study on credit scoring. CEJ’s Executive Director Birny Birnbaum...
ACE Global Re Expands Finite Risk Reinsurance Market
Jul 9 2004 // ACE Global Re, the reinsurance division of the Bermuda-based ACE Group of Companies, announced that it is expanding its reinsurance capabilities in the finite risk reinsurance market. “Both prospective and...
Another Soft Market Creates a Hard Reality
Jul 5 2004 // Like a commercial airline scrambling to squeeze out a profit in the face of increased competition and skyrocketing fuel prices, many insurance agents find themselves caught in the downward spiral of another soft market...
Industry At ‘Point Of Inflection,’ Says Standard & Poor’s
Jul 5 2004 // The insurance industry, now teeter-tottering between a hard and a soft market, “has reached a point of inflection,” said Robert Partridge, Standard & Poor’s managing director, at S&P’s...
Association Awards Golden Torch to Insurance Journal Publisher Wells
Jul 5 2004 // Mark Wells Mark Wells, editor and publisher of Insurance Journal and Insurance Journal.com and chief executive officer of Wells Publishing Inc., has been awarded the Insurance Marketing Communications Association’s...
The New Insurers: This Time, They’ll Do It The Right Way
Jul 5 2004 // ‘Clean Slate’ U.S. P/C Insurers Learn from Sins of Their Predecessors In the summer of 2001, the hard cycle had already arrived for the U.S. property/casualty marketplace. Prices were trending up as experts...
Swiss Re Economists See Prolonged Hard Market
Jul 5 2004 // Swiss Re’s chief economist believes that strong economic growth, coupled with a slight uptick in inflation, will force the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate to close to 2 percent by the end of...
Association Awards Golden Torch to Insurance Journal’s Publisher
Jul 5 2004 // Mark Wells Mark Wells, editor and publisher of Insurance Journal and InsuranceJournal.com and CEO of Wells Publishing Inc., has been awarded the Insurance Marketing Communications Association’s (IMCA) 2004 Golden...
Sarbanes-Oxley ‘Stifles Competition,’ Says MetLife CEO
Jul 5 2004 // In the opinion of one major industry player, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 set in place “a mad rush to save the world from bad management,” a misguided and costly strategy that will fall victim to its...
Victory for the Industry
Jul 5 2004 // This past Fourth of July weekend, the insurance industry celebrated a small victory in their push to keep the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) alive past its Dec. 31, 2005 sunset date. Following the National Association...
Sarbanes-Oxley ‘Stifles Competition’, Says MetLife CEO
Jul 5 2004 // In the opinion of one major industry player, The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 set in place “a mad rush to save the world from bad management,” a misguided and costly strategy that will fall victim to its...
Association Awards Golden Torch to Insurance Journal’s Publisher
Jul 5 2004 // Mark Wells Mark Wells, editor and publisher of Insurance Journal and Insurance Journal Online and CEO of Wells Publishing Inc., has been awarded the Insurance Marketing Communications Association’s (IMCA) 2004 Golden...
Most Recent Hard Market May Be Past Its Prime
Jul 5 2004 // Over the period 1989 through 2001, the property/casualty insurance marketplace saw direct written premium grow from $228 billion to nearly $362 billion. This represented a compound rate of increase of approximately 4...
This Time, We’ll Do It The Right Way
Jul 5 2004 // New U.S. P/C Insurers Learn from Sins of Their Predecessors In the summer of 2001, the hard cycle had already arrived for the U.S. property/casualty marketplace for all lines of coverage. Prices were trending up as experts...
CII, CILA Launch U.K. Claims Faculty
Jul 1 2004 // The U.K’s Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) announced the launch of a new forum for the insurance industry’s 100,000-strong claims. The bulletin noted that...
Fitch Affirms PartnerRe Debt and Insurance Ratings
Jun 30 2004 // Fitch Ratings announced that it has affirmed the ‘AA’ insurer financial strength rating of Bermuda’s Partner Reinsurance Company and the ‘A+’ long-term issuer rating of Partner Reinsurance...
Big ‘I’ to Offer Continuing Ed Courses in Orlando
Jun 30 2004 // For individuals needing continuing education (CE) credits to meet their state’s insurance licensing requirements, then the 2004 Big “I” Convention this October at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin...
P/C Industry’s Q1 Net Income Doubles
Jun 29 2004 // The U.S. property/casualty industry’s net income after taxes rose to $13.3 billion in first-quarter 2004 from $6.5 billion in first-quarter 2003 as insurers posted an underwriting profit for only the second time...
