Latest USA Headlines

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

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...

Mercedes Most Popular Luxury Car Among U.S. Thieves

Jul 31 2013 // Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz vehicles were the most sought-after luxury brand among U.S. car thieves from 2009 through 2012 as the New York City region had the greatest number of thefts, an insurance industry group...

World Fuel Doubts Quebec Rail Crash Cleanup Payment Order is Legal

Jul 31 2013 // U.S. fuel logistics company World Fuel Services Corp said on Tuesday it has “serious objections” to being ordered by the Quebec government to help pay for the cleanup of the devastating railway crash in...

Toronto Dominion Bank Warns of Insurance Losses from Weather Claims

Jul 31 2013 // Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender, said it will take a third-quarter charge after tax of C$418 million (US$406 million) due to recent severe weather in Alberta and Ontario and to boost its...

Crop Insurance, High Crop Prices Leading to Eco-Catastrophe: Environmental Group

Jul 31 2013 // Sustained high prices for corn, soybeans and wheat combined with record U.S. crop-insurance payouts are encouraging farmers to plow fragile lands and put ecosystems at risk, an environmental advocacy group said. Northern...

Alabama Coastal Residents Bracing for Major Flood Insurance Increases

Jul 30 2013 // Flood maps aren’t due out for Alabama until next December, but the specter of rising flood insurance premiums is undeniable. Congress, seeking to undo the damage done to the National Flood Insurance Program after...

Judge Says Bernanke Should Testify in Greenberg’s Suit Against Bailout

Jul 29 2013 // A U.S. judge said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should be required to testify in the lawsuit by the former chief of American International Group Inc., Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, against the United States...

Victims in Meningitis Outbreak Cleared to File Product Liability Suits

Jul 29 2013 // Victims in Tennessee of a deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak won the right to pursue a new avenue of litigation against healthcare facilities and doctors there, after a ruling by a U.S. bankruptcy judge this week. Tennessee...