Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Pfizer to Pay $1.8 Million in Prempro Punitive Damages
Aug 8 2013 // Pfizer Inc. must pay about $1.8 million in punitive damages to a Connecticut woman who developed breast cancer after taking the company’s Prempro menopause drug, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Janet Bond...
AIG, Former Executives Sued by Nuveen Investment Funds, UCalif Regents
Aug 8 2013 // Twenty-five Nuveen Investments Inc. funds sued American International Group Inc., claiming the company committed securities fraud in the months leading up to the U.S. financial crisis in 2008. Also named as defendants in a...
BP Ordered to Pay $130M Operating Costs of Gulf Oil Spill Claims Program
Aug 8 2013 // BP Plc must pay $130 million to a court-appointed administrator overseeing payments to thousands of people who claimed they were hurt by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, in a fresh...
Ratings Recap: Catlin (U.S.), LEMIC, Florists’ Mutual
Aug 8 2013 // At the same time that it affirmed its ratings on the Catlin Group A.M. Best also affirmed the financial strength rating of ‘A’ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings of “a” of Catlin Insurance...
Aon Benfield’s July Cat Report Confirms Canada’s 2nd Billion Dollar Loss
Aug 8 2013 // According to the latest Global Catastrophe Recap report from Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, the “strong thunderstorms” that “brought record...
Munich Re Licenses AIR’s Updated Crop Insurance Models for U.S., China
Aug 8 2013 // AIR Worldwide reported that it has updated its Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) Models for the United States and China. “These are weather-based models that estimate underwriting gains and losses based on crop...
Kenya Resumes International Flights After Fire Shuts Airport
Aug 8 2013 // Kenya accepted some incoming international flights at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after fire engulfed the arrivals terminals yesterday and shut operations at the busiest air-transportation hub in East...
Insurance Tech Firm Ebix Reportedly Under U.S. Review for Possible Money Laundering
Aug 6 2013 // Federal investigators are reviewing Ebix Inc.’s cross-border financial transactions to see whether the Atlanta-based software company engaged in money laundering, according to three people with knowledge of the...
Wal-Mart Workers in California Denied Class Action Status in Gender Bias Case
Aug 6 2013 // Women workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in California suing for gender discrimination can’t pursue their claims against the retailer as a group because the evidence didn’t show they had enough in common, a judge...
Trucking Industry Loses Challenge to Driver Fatigue Rule
Aug 6 2013 // U.S. Transportation Department regulations to ensure drivers get more rest were mostly upheld by a federal appeals court, a defeat for trucking companies that said the rules would add cost without improving highway...
Commentary: Does FSOC Understand the Business of Insurance?
Aug 5 2013 // The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) designated AIG as a Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) after determining that “material financial distress at AIG could pose a threat to U.S....
BP Says Rejection of Oil Spill Claims Appeals Could Scuttle Settlement
Aug 5 2013 // The settlement BP Plc reached last year with most private parties over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be scuttled if a U.S. appeals court doesn’t throw out the interpretation of payments being used by the...
Fraud Roundup
Aug 5 2013 // Former Oklahoma Insurance Agent Sentenced A former Bixby, Okla., insurance agent has been sentenced to 10 months home confinement after pleading guilty to wire fraud that allowed him to illegally take commissions earned by...
AIG Reports 17% Increase in Profit; Issues First Dividend Since 2008
Aug 2 2013 // American International Group Inc. announced its first capital return since its 2008 bailout, through a dividend and share buyback, sending its shares up 6 percent after the bell. The insurer, which was almost wiped out by...
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Dodd-Frank by 11 States and Texas Bank
Aug 1 2013 // A lawsuit by 11 states and a Texas bank challenging the Dodd-Frank law’s financial regulation overhaul was dismissed by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington Thursday ruled that the...
Cat Bond Issuance Hits 6-Year High: Aon Benfield ILS Report
Aug 1 2013 // Aon Benfield Securities, the investment banking division of global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Aon Benfield, has issued it latest report – The Insurance-Linked Securities Second Quarter 2013 Update...
Corporate ‘Sleuths’ on Edge after China Detains Foreign Consultants
Aug 1 2013 // The detention by Chinese authorities of a British corporate investigator and his American wife in the wake of a corruption probe into pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has had a chilling effect on other risk consultants...
Rates Up Moderately in U.S. in Q2 But Down Elsewhere: Marsh
Jul 31 2013 // Insurance rates in most major regions including Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the UK and continental Europe declined modestly in the second quarter of 2013, while rates in the U.S. rose moderately, according to insurance...
Florida, Georgia Say Individual Insurance Rates to Spike Under Obamacare
Jul 31 2013 // Florida and Georgia, two states where politicians oppose U.S. President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, said this week that insurance rates for individuals would rise sharply in 2014 under the reform. The remarks are...
U.S. Safety Rule for Oil Trains Delayed for Year
Jul 31 2013 // The Obama administration has delayed by nearly a year a plan to boost safety standards for the type of rail car involved in a fiery explosion that killed at least 47 people in Canada this month. Officials began work on the...
