Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Whistleblower Says BofA Defrauded Home Loan Remodification Program
Mar 7 2012 // Bank of America NA prevented homeowners from receiving mortgage-loan modifications under a federal program in order to avoid millions of dollars in losses while benefiting from financial incentives for participating in the...
SEC Weighs Exempting Insurance Companies from Volcker Rule
Mar 7 2012 // The top U.S. securities regulator said on Tuesday her agency is exploring whether insurance companies can qualify for a coveted exemption in the proposed Volcker rule that would protect them from having to scale back their...
HSBC Sells General Insurance Business to AXA, QBE for $914 Million
Mar 7 2012 // HSBC has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses to French insurer AXA Group and Australia’s QBE Insurance Group for $914 million in cash, as Europe’s biggest bank moves ahead with its plan to divest...
Supreme Court Weighs If Firms Can Be Sued Over Human Rights Abuses Abroad
Mar 6 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would hear arguments next term on whether an 18th century U.S. law can be used to sue multinational corporations or others in American courts for alleged human rights abuses...
Appeals Court Upholds Corps’ Liability in Katrina Flood Ruling
Mar 5 2012 // A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s landmark ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers is liable for property owners’ claims, agreeing the shoddy work on a shipping channel caused billions of dollars in...
Shell Files Pre-Emptive Offshore Drilling Lawsuit
Mar 5 2012 // Shell Oil Co. is taking the offensive against environmental groups that have put legal roadblocks in the company’s path to offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean. The Houston-based company on Wednesday sued 11 Alaska...
Court Blocks Drug Enforcement Against Florida’s Cardinal Health, CVS
Mar 5 2012 // A U.S. appeals court has agreed to temporarily allow Cardinal Health Inc. to continue distributing strictly-controlled prescription drugs from a Florida facility, blocking a Drug Enforcement Administration order to suspend...
Three Mull Lawsuits in U.S. Against Murdoch’s News Corp.
Mar 5 2012 // Three people who believe they were targeted by a private investigator working for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World while they were in the United States are considering suing his company in U.S. courts, a source...
BP’s Potential Pricetag for Gulf Oil Spill
Mar 5 2012 // BP Plc struck a deal on Friday to pay an estimated $7.8 billion to settle claims from individuals and businesses stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But BP and its partners in the ill-fated Macondo well still...
BP’s $7.8 Billion Deal May Speed Gulf Spill Payments
Mar 5 2012 // The estimated $7.8 billion deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential...
AIG to Sell $6 Billion Worth of AIA shares to Repay U.S. Bail-out
Mar 5 2012 // American International Group is selling part of its stake in AIA Group to raise about $6 billion to help the U.S. insurer repay a huge federal government bail-out. AIG is looking to place some 1.7 billion AIA shares in a...
U.S. Should Expect Another Above-Normal Tornado Season
Mar 5 2012 // The U.S. should expect an active severe weather season with above-normal tornadoes in 2012. That’s after a near-record number of tornadoes in 2011, according to forecasters at AccuWeather.com in State College,...
Business Moves
Mar 5 2012 // OneBeacon, Interboro OneBeacon Insurance Group completed the sale of its AutoOne business to Interboro Holdings of New York. The transaction, which was announced on Aug. 31, 2011, included AutoOne Insurance Co. and AutoOne...
For Hire: Alaska Insurance Director
Mar 5 2012 // Wanted: State Insurance Director. Must supply your own parka. Linda Hall, director of Alaska’s Division of Insurance, is retiring after nine years on the job, and the state has launched a nationwide search for her...
Tornado Season Begins. Now What?
Mar 5 2012 // Tornado season usually starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months, but it got off to an early and deadly start in late January when two people were killed by separate twisters in Alabama. Preliminary...
China to Open Auto Insurance Market
Mar 5 2012 // China has agreed to an important financial sector reform by opening up its massive auto insurance market to foreign competition. During a meeting with U.S. business chiefs and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, U.S. Vice...
Captives Bring Premium Dollars and Jobs to Missouri
Mar 5 2012 // The State Is Serious About Encouraging Captive Growth When it comes to the captive insurance industry, slow and steady growth is just fine with the state of Missouri. But it’s not like the state is reluctant to...
Judge: BP, Anadarko, Transocean May Be Liable for Oil Pollution Claims
Mar 5 2012 // BP Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. are liable and Transocean Ltd. may be liable for civil damages under federal pollution laws over the catastrophic 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. judge ruled. The decision by U.S....
Declarations
Mar 5 2012 // Rate Improving “There absolutely is a trend of rate improving…In the U.S., we’ve seen property, workers comp, as well as excess casualty and general liability starting to increase.” —Peter...
The Power of Choice
Mar 5 2012 // Peering across the market, it’s easy to see the telltale signs of a market in transition, the completion of one cycle and the beginning of another. This time around, dusting off the old underwriting “hard...
