Latest USA Headlines

All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Supreme Court Upholds Credit Card Arbitration Clauses

Jan 12 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday for Synovus Financial Corp. and CompuCredit Holdings Corp. and said credit card claims by consumers under a 1996 law must be handled in arbitration, not in court. By an 8-1 vote, the...

Internet Begins New Chapter with .yournamehere Domains

Jan 12 2012 // A quiet Internet revolution begins on Thursday. Organizations can begin applying to name and run their own domains instead of entrusting them to the operators of .com, .org, .gov and others. Up to 2,000 applications are...

N.Y.-based U.S. RE Hires Guy Carpenter Exec as Senior Vice President

Jan 11 2012 // Global reinsurance broker U.S. RE Corp. appointed reinsurance veteran James Nelson as senior vice president. Nelson is a reinsurance executive with more than 30 years of experience. He served more than 30 years at Guy...

FIO’s McRaith: 150 Comments Received on Modernizing Insurance Regulation

Jan 11 2012 // Speaking at an industry conference yesterday, the Federal Insurance Office’s top official gave an update on his department’s upcoming report on the U.S. insurance regulatory system. FIO Director Michael McRaith...

Aon Benfield 2011 Catastrophe Study: $107 Bn Insured Losses; $435 Bn Economic

Jan 10 2012 // Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corp, has issued its “Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report,” which aggregates and analyses the natural disaster perils that...

Endurance Promotes Boland to Senior VP in New York Office

Jan 10 2012 // Endurance Specialty Holdings promoted Mark Boland to the position of senior vice president, primary casualty insurance. In his new role, Boland will lead Endurance’s U.S. wholesale primary casualty insurance...

Boston Lawsuit Claims DES-Breast Cancer Link

Jan 10 2012 // Arline MacCormack first heard about DES from her mother when she was 17. Three decades later, MacCormack believes that the drug her mother took to prevent miscarriages caused her to develop breast cancer at age...

Medicare Liens and Settlements Following United States v. Stricker

Jan 9 2012 // Reaching a settlement amount between the carrier and a plaintiff over a personal injury claim is sometimes the easiest part of a settlement where Medicare liens are involved. Medicare is a payer of last resort, which...

Safety Of Popular Air Shows, Races Under Scrutiny

Jan 9 2012 // Despite suffering severe injuries in the worst air race accident in the U.S. in more than a half a century, some victims of the crash at the Reno Air Races in Nevada late last year have told their lawyer they would like to...

SEC Changes Its Settlement Language Where Criminal Violations Admitted

Jan 9 2012 // U.S. securities regulators said on Friday that defendants can no longer settle civil cases using “neither admit nor deny” language if they have already admitted to wrongdoing in parallel criminal cases. The...

People

Jan 9 2012 // Starr Companies appointed Ed Navarro as head of international insurance operations. Navarro will drive Starr’s expansion for areas outside of the U.S. He’s been serving as global head of accident and health...

California Arson Suspect Also Faces German Fire Probe

Jan 6 2012 // The man who allegedly ignited more than 50 fires that terrorized Los Angeles last week is also under investigation in Germany for a house fire near Frankfurt. U.S. investigators also disclosed that a search of Harry...

Australia’s Suncorp Updates Melbourne Storm, NZ Quake Loss Estimates

Jan 6 2012 // Australia’s Suncorp Group Limited’s preliminary estimates of the financial impacts of the recent Melbourne hailstorm and Christchurch earthquake are between A$200 and A$250 million [US$204.9 to US$256.1...

La Nina to Linger to Spring

Jan 5 2012 // La Nina, the weather phenomenon widely blamed for withering drought in the southwestern United States and South America, may last longer than expected, into the Northern Hemisphere spring, the U.S. Climate Prediction...

Oklahoma Commissioner Disappointed in Denial of MLR Waiver Request

Jan 5 2012 // Oklahoma’s top insurance regulator believes the medical insurance market is headed for “disruption” as a result of the medical loss ratio component of federal health insurance reform After...

Insurance Veterans’ Forecasts for 2012

Jan 5 2012 // Now that the year 2011 is behind us, let’s take a look at what might be ahead. Insurance Journal spoke with leading industry professionals and asked them what they are expecting this year. If their forecasts are any...

Ecuador Plaintiffs to Seek Damages from Chevron Abroad

Jan 5 2012 // Ecuadorean plaintiffs who won an $18 billion environmental case against Chevron Corp will pursue legal action against the company overseas in a bid to collect the damages, their lawyer said on Wednesday. An appeals court...

On-Duty Firefighter Fatalities Decreased in 2011

Jan 4 2012 // There were 81 on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States as a result of incidents that occurred in 2011, a decrease from the 87 fatalities reported for 2010. The 81 fatalities occurred in 33 states, one U.S....

Earthquakes Prompt Record Insurance Claims in 2011

Jan 4 2012 // Insurance industry damage claims from natural disasters like the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand reached a record $105 billion in 2011, Munich Re , the world’s biggest reinsurer, said on Wednesday. The cost to...

AXA, Japan Post Top Best’s List of World’s Largest Insurers

Jan 4 2012 // France’s AXA S.A. has again topped the list of the world’s 25 largest insurance companies, based on premiums written, compiled by A.M. Best. The lists, which were compiled both on asset value and on net...