Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas-Based American Underwriting Managers Acquired by U.S. Risk
Jan 15 2016 // U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc., has acquired Southlake, Texas-based managing general agency and wholesale insurance broker, American Underwriting Managers (AUM). For 17 years AUM has served the needs of retail insurance...
U.S. to Ease Safety Rules to Accelerate Driverless Cars
Jan 15 2016 // f- Self-driving cars will get closer to appearing on American roads under a U.S. Transportation Department plan to speed their rollout. Regulators will allow automakers that can demonstrate they have a safe autonomous...
U.S. Safety Officials Push Self-Braking Technology for Cars, Trains, Trucks
Jan 15 2016 // Safety officials want to see more technology used to reduce accidents on U.S. roads, airways and railroads. In its annual “Most Wanted” list, the National Transportation Safety Board is urging government...
The Struggle Getting U.S. Regulators to Understand Insurance
Jan 15 2016 // The designation of MetLife as a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Oversight Council is a done deal. But exactly what that means in terms of higher regulatory standards is still not...
GM Ignition Switch Trial Opens with Claim of Defect Coverup
Jan 14 2016 // General Motors Co. found a deadly flaw in its ignition switches but chose to keep customers and regulators in the dark for years, a lawyer for an injured postal carrier told jurors in the first trial over the defect. The...
Widow’s Damages Lawsuit Blames Twitter for Spread of ISIS
Jan 14 2016 // Twitter Inc. was accused in a lawsuit by the widow of a man killed at a police training center in Jordan of knowingly allowing the Islamic State to spread its terrorist message through its service. Twitter, like other...
Insured Nat Cat Losses 31% Below Average During 2015: Aon Benfield Report
Jan 14 2016 // Global natural disasters in 2015 caused a combined total insured loss of $35 billion – 31 percent below the 15-year average of $51 billion and the lowest annual insured loss total since 2009, said a report issued by...
MetLife Spinoff Plan Could Add to Pressure on AIG to Split
Jan 13 2016 // After General Electric Co. began selling finance operations to exit too-big-to-fail status, American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock said it wasn’t clear that escaping the government...
60% of P/C Execs See 2016 Much Like 2015; 55% Expect Democrat to Win White House
Jan 13 2016 // Leaders of the property/casualty insurance industry expect 2016 to be a profitable year much like 2015 but do not see any increase in profitability this year for most lines of insurance, and they do not expect the economy...
Paulson’s PaCRe Shuts Down After Investment Slump, Bermuda Tax Uncertainties
Jan 13 2016 // Billionaire John Paulson’s New York hedge fund firm has shut an operation in Bermuda that had been targeted by a Democratic lawmaker as a tax shelter. Paulson’s venture, a reinsurer named PaCRe Ltd., has...
Update: Dutch Insurer Aegon Plans $432M Share Buy-Back, to Cut U.S. Costs
Jan 13 2016 // Aegon NV jumped the most in almost six years after saying it plans to buy back 400 million euros ($432 million) of shares and cut costs to improve its return on equity. The Dutch owner of insurer Transamerica Corp....
Liberty International Underwriters Appoints 3 Senior VPs
Jan 12 2016 // Liberty International Underwriters (LIU), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance, has hired William Bell as senior vice president of U.S. Environmental. LIU also announced two promotions: Mike Nukk to senior vice president of...
Despite Costly Bird Flu, Chicken Farmers Reject Vaccine
Jan 12 2016 // Determined to avoid a repeat of the nation’s worst-ever avian-influenza outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is stockpiling up to 500 million doses of a new vaccine — but many in the $48 billion poultry...
Boies, Edwards Among 140 Lawyers Vying to Take Lead Against Volkswagen
Jan 12 2016 // Among the more than 140 plaintiffs’ lawyers competing to lead private litigation against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal is former U.S. Senator and Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John...
15 State AGs Join Federal Antitrust Probe of Giant Health Insurers’ Mergers: Reuters
Jan 12 2016 // About 15 state attorneys general have joined the Justice Department’s probe of two big insurance mergers, according to people familiar with the matter, increasing the scrutiny on proposed deals that would reduce the...
Automakers, U.S. to Unveil Safety Collaboration Pact
Jan 12 2016 // The U.S. government and a group of global automakers are set to unveil a voluntary agreement at the Detroit auto show on Friday aimed at improving auto industry safety and spurring culture changes, according to company and...
Supreme Court Lets Stand $124M Penalty Against Risperdal Drugmaker
Jan 11 2016 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary’s appeal of a $124 million penalty imposed by South Carolina after a jury found the drugmaker had improperly marketed the...
Supreme Court Says Nestle Must Face Liability Claim for Foreign Child Slavery
Jan 11 2016 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by Nestle SA, the world’s largest food maker, and two other companies to throw out a lawsuit seeking to hold them liable for the use of child slaves to harvest cocoa in...
First Trial Over Faulty GM Ignition Switch to Open Today
Jan 11 2016 // General Motors is set to go to trial Monday in a lawsuit over its 2014 recall of millions of vehicles for a faulty ignition switch linked to nearly 400 injuries and deaths. In the lawsuit, plaintiff Robert Scheuers claims...
Hackers Caused Ukraine Outage with Malware & Remote Power Cut: Report
Jan 11 2016 // Hackers likely caused a Dec. 23 electricity outage in Ukraine by remotely switching breakers to cut power, after installing malware to prevent technicians from detecting the attack, according to a report analyzing how the...
