Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Best Affirms QBE Insurance Group ‘A’ Ratings; Outlook Stable
Oct 1 2012 // A.M. Best Europe – Rating Services Limited has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a+” of UK-based QBE Insurance (Europe)...
Supreme Court to Hear Employer Liability, Class Certification in New Term
Oct 1 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review close to 40 cases in its new term that begins on Monday, roughly half the number the court is expected to hear this year. Below are some of the more prominent cases that the...
Former FDIC Chair Bair Reveals Financial Bailout Details in Book
Sep 26 2012 // When Sheila Bair showed up for a meeting in then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s office in October 2008, the bank regulator had no idea she was about to be asked to guarantee the debts of the entire $13 trillion...
Court Certifies Gender Bias Class Action Against Costco
Sep 26 2012 // A U.S. judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Costco Wholesale Corp. over allegations of gender discrimination in the store’s promotion practices. Three women plaintiffs say Costco’s promotion...
Court Revives Ex-Chrysler Executives’ Age Bias Claims
Sep 26 2012 // Hundreds of former Chrysler LLC executives claiming they lost retirement benefits because of age bias can sue the company’s former parent Daimler AG, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday. More than 450 former auto...
USI Completes Acquisition of TD Bank’s U.S. Insurance Subsidiary
Sep 25 2012 // USI Insurance Services, a brokerage and financial service firm based in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., said Monday it has completed the acquisition of TD Insurance Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of TD Bank, N.A. The transaction was...
Judge Lets Wal-Mart Discrimination Case Proceed
Sep 24 2012 // A U.S. judge rejected Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s request to dismiss a gender discrimination case filed in California, but said he would rule later about whether the women plaintiffs had enough evidence to be certified as...
Catalina Acquires Runoff Vehicle KX Re from Tawa
Sep 24 2012 // Catalina Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd has announced that it has signed a definitive Share Purchase Agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in KX Reinsurance Company Limited, including KX Re’s wholly owned subsidiary...
China Eases Access to Insurance, Travel industries
Sep 24 2012 // China has eased restrictions on foreign companies in parts of its insurance, travel and delivery industries in a possible effort to reverse a slide in investment from abroad, an American business group said Friday. Some of...
A Milestone for AIG
Sep 24 2012 // We have a news item in this Sept. 24 issue, on page 8, that marks a milestone for one of the most talked about U.S. corporations in recent times. For the first time since its $182 billion bailout by the U.S. Treasury...
People – East
Sep 24 2012 // Marsh & McLennan Cos. appointed J. Michael Bischoff as chief financial officer. Bischoff has been serving as interim CFO since March 2012 when then-CFO Vanessa Wittman resigned to join Google as its Motorola Mobility...
ACE Accuses OneBeacon of Poaching Employees
Sep 24 2012 // ACE American Insurance Co. recently filed a lawsuit against OneBeacon U.S. Holdings Inc. In its lawsuit, filed in Pennsylvania, ACE alleges that OneBeacon poached the entire eight member-team that made up ACE’s East...
Report: Wildfires Pose Risk to Three Quarter-Million Western U.S. Homes
Sep 24 2012 // More than three-quarters of a million homes in the Western U.S. have a high risk of wildfire damage, according to a report released by Santa Ana, Calif.-based CoreLogic. CoreLogic’s Wildfire Hazard Risk Report...
3 States Join Lawsuit Challenging Dodd-Frank Law
Sep 23 2012 // Three U.S. states have joined a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that overhauled U.S. financial oversight and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The attorneys general...
Argo Group Names Betz President of U.S. Surety Operation
Sep 21 2012 // Argo Group International Holdings Ltd. has promoted Josh Betz to president of Argo Surety, Argo Group’s Houston, Texas-based U.S. surety operation. He reports to Chief Financial Officer Jay Bullock. Betz previously...
Drought Area Expands in Northern U.S., Eases in South
Sep 21 2012 // The worst drought to hit the United States in a half century expanded in the upper Midwest and northern Plains states in the past week due to warmer- and drier-than-normal weather, but loosened its grip on some central and...
Report Points to Insurance Industry’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
Sep 20 2012 // A report out Thursday urges the insurance industry to act to protect itself and the community against the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change. In short, the report, its authors and those endorsing...
Pentagon Warns Private Computer Networks on Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks
Sep 20 2012 // Privately-owned U.S. computer networks remain vulnerable to cyber attacks, and many U.S. companies are not doing enough to protect them, Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Wednesday. “I hope this...
John Hancock, Law Firm Face Tax Shelter Racketeering Lawsuit
Sep 20 2012 // John Hancock Life Insurance Co. and its law firm, Edwards Wildman Palmer, must face a class action accusing them of violating racketeering laws by marketing a tax shelter, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday. The...
Bank Group Warns of Heightened Risk of Cyber Attacks
Sep 20 2012 // A financial services industry group warned U.S. banks, brokerages and insurers on Wednesday to be on heightened alert for cyber attacks after Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase experienced unexplained outages on their...
