Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tech Firm Trōv Promises to Reinvent ‘Insurance to Value’ for P/C Industry
Sep 25 2013 // A high tech start-up is promising to raise the standard for determining “insurance to value” by giving property/casualty insurance companies and brokers access to real-time data on their upscale insureds’...
BofA Denies Government Claim of ‘Massive Fraud’ in Trial Over Mortgages
Sep 25 2013 // Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide unit placed profits over quality in a “massive fraud” selling shoddy mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a U.S. government lawyer said on Tuesday. The claim came...
Quiet Atlantic Storm Season Humbles Forecasters
Sep 25 2013 // The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is humbling forecasters by shaping up as the first in almost two decades without a major storm, confounding predictions that it would be more active than normal. It’s been two weeks...
Canada Regulator Urges Re/Insurers to Use Cat Bonds after Flood Disaster
Sep 25 2013 // Canada’s banking regulator is urging insurers to sell catastrophe bonds for the first time to cut the risk of natural disasters, such as the record floods that inundated swathes of downtown Calgary in June. Climate...
Opinion: Energy Industry Liability May Cover Contamination Claims From Colorado Flooding
Sep 24 2013 // Colorado residents and businesses face devastating water inundation that many are dubbing a one-in-500-years weather event. Early reports confirm nearly 2,400 square miles saturated with water causing massive dislocation...
Not So Fast: Driverless Vehicles Face Driver Caution and Other Speed Bumps
Sep 24 2013 // The world has moved quickly from wonder at the idea of driverless cars to impatient expectation. The Cadillac SRX zipping around a test track in suburban Detroit is flashing a sign: Not so fast. The car can pilot itself at...
AIG, Brookfield End Litigation Over Financial Crisis
Sep 24 2013 // American International Group Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. agreed to end a 2009 lawsuit in which Brookfield sought a judge’s ruling that the insurer’s collapse triggered default provisions in...
Surplus Lines Took Hit from Sandy in 2012 But Appears Back on Track in 2013
Sep 23 2013 // Surplus lines insurers in 2012 posted one of their worst years overall as their underwriting performance fell below that of the total property/casualty (P/C) industry for the first time in more than a decade. Much of the...
U.S. Wants Supreme Court to Take up Hobby Lobby Case
Sep 23 2013 // The federal government has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby and a Christian bookstore chain have to provide a wide range of birth control options for workers as part of the...
Technology, Not Presidents, Drives Healthcare Costs
Sep 23 2013 // Last week I attended Brookings Papers on Economic Activity to watch some of the smartest economists in America debate some of the most interesting papers. The very first paper presented is of particularly timely interest:...
Vote on Prudential Systemic Risk Designation Was 7-2
Sep 23 2013 // Prudential Financial Inc., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, was designated systemically important in a 7-to-2 vote by a council of regulators charged with preventing another crisis. Edward DeMarco, acting director of...
Midwest Politicians Work as Insurance Advocates
Sep 23 2013 // Three individuals who have worked in the insurance industry and now practice politics in the Midwest — Indiana State Representative Matt Lehman, Michigan State Senator David Robertson and U.S. Congressman Tom Latham...
Wholesale: More Special Than Ever
Sep 23 2013 // Savvy wholesalers are meeting the demand for specialized knowledge Everyone loves the wholesale insurance business these days, or so it seems. “We’ve seen the entrance of a lot of other people coming into the...
The FSB’s Report Misses The Mark
Sep 23 2013 // In the United States, football season has just arrived. In Europe, football season has been underway since August. While both are a sport and called “football,” they couldn’t be more different. They have...
JLT to Acquire Towers Watson Reinsurance Brokerage Unit, Expand Into U.S.
Sep 20 2013 // UK-based broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc (JLT) said it is acquiring the reinsurance brokerage business of New York-based Towers Watson for $250 million. JLT said the acquisition would provide “a very strong...
JPMorgan Guilty Admission Marks Shift in SEC Policy
Sep 20 2013 // The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in settling claims with JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its handling of a $6.2 billion trading loss, landed its biggest victory yet in fulfilling a pledge to force wrongdoers to...
Judge Accepts Halliburton’s Guilty Plea in Gulf Oil Case
Sep 20 2013 // A federal judge accepted a Halliburton Co. unit’s guilty plea to destroying tests conducted on cement work connected to the BP Plc-owned well that exploded in 2010, setting off the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Officials...
Prudential Designated Systemically Risky, Subject to Federal Reserve Oversight
Sep 20 2013 // Insurer Prudential Financial Inc. said on Thursday that U.S. regulators had voted to designate the company as systemically risky, bringing it under stricter regulatory oversight. A group of regulators known as the...
Best Affirms Ratings of Aspen Insurance and Subs Ratings
Sep 20 2013 // A.M. Best Europe – Rating Services Limited has affirmed the financial strength rating of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a” of Aspen Insurance UK Limited (AIUK) and Aspen...
Texas Governor, State Senator Square Off on Health Exchange Navigator Rules
Sep 19 2013 // Texas’ top insurance regulator has found herself in the midst of a battle over rules that govern those who will provide information to consumers about the health insurance exchanges that are a part of the U.S....
