Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
New York Suit Accuses Ernst & Young of Hiding Lehman Troubles
Dec 22 2010 // Accounting firm Ernst & Young was sued by New York prosecutors over allegations it helped to hide Lehman Brothers’ financial problems, in the first major government legal action stemming from the Wall Street...
Catlin Raises Estimates of NZ Quake Losses to $45 Million
Dec 22 2010 // Catlin Group Limited announced that, “based on total insured losses from the New Zealand earthquake of US$5.5 billion to US$6 billion, its loss amounts are approximately US$45 million, net of reinsurance and...
Top Brokers, Munich Re Pool Efforts to Expand Insurance for Oil Drilling
Dec 22 2010 // The world’s top three insurance brokers have joined reinsurer Munich Re to promote a major expansion in risk coverage for deepwater drilling in the wake of BP’s disastrous Gulf of Mexico spill last April. Their...
U.S. Treasury Plans 2 Large AIG Stock Sales in 2011
Dec 21 2010 // The U.S. Treasury Department plans to sell a large piece of its stake in American International Group in two stock offerings next year, officials briefed on the situation told Reuters. It would sell any remaining stock in...
Best Affirms AIG, Domestic P/C and Life Subsidiaries Ratings
Dec 21 2010 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength ratings (FSR) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of the property/casualty and life/health subsidiaries of American International Group, Inc. as well as the ICR of...
S&P Rates Catlin Re ‘A’; Sees ‘Key Benefits’ from Swiss-based Subsidiary
Dec 21 2010 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned its ‘A’ counterparty credit and financial strength ratings to Switzerland-based Catlin Re Switzerland (CRCH), a new insurance entity created as a...
$81M Punitive Damages in Massachusetts Cigarette Case
Dec 21 2010 // A tobacco company that had tried to hook black children on cigarettes was ordered to pay $81 million in punitive damages to the estate and son of a Boston woman who started smoking at age 13, in what an attorney said is...
U.S. Treasury’s AIG Fix-It Man Ready for Next Assignment
Dec 21 2010 // Jim Millstein is no stranger to troubled companies. With a long career as a bankruptcy lawyer and former head of Lazard Ltd’s restructuring practice, he’s done his share of turnarounds. But nothing prepared him...
Property, Violent Crimes Decline in U.S. in First Half 2010: FBI
Dec 20 2010 // The nation experienced a 6.2 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes and a 2.8 percent decline in the number of property crimes from January to June 2010. Arson, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft fell and...
Florida Case Is Next Test for Health Care Law
Dec 20 2010 // Attorneys for 20 states fighting the new federal health care law told a judge last week it will expand the government’s powers in dangerous and unintended ways. The states want U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to...
Fact or Fiction? Insurance Tidbits of Known and Little-Known Information
Dec 20 2010 // Have you ever wondered what big events helped shape regulation of the current U.S. insurance industry? Or if drivers of certain cars have more risk? What about the most attractive insurance job in the industry? These are...
People
Dec 20 2010 // Insurance broker Marsh appointed Peter Mavraganis as U.S. leader of its renewable energy practice. Mavraganis, based in New York, will oversee Marsh’s support for its clients in renewable energy development,...
Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead at Lloyd’s
Dec 20 2010 // December is often a time of reflection on what we’ve achieved, where we’ve stumbled and what lessons we will take forward into the New Year. When Lloyd’s published its three-year strategy earlier this...
Aon Benfield Releases Annual Cat Report; Insured Losses at $38 Billion
Dec 17 2010 // Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corporation, has released its Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide...
Congress Sends Tax Deal to Obama for Signing
Dec 17 2010 // Congress gave final approval late Thursday to the deal President Barack Obama and Republicans made to extend expiring tax cuts — a high-stakes gamble to create jobs at a cost of deepening the U.S. debt. Over...
U.S. Financial Rescue Cheap Compared to Past Crises: Geithner
Dec 17 2010 // The price of corporate bailouts in 2008 and 2009 looks cheap compared to past crises, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday, while urging more drastic action from housing finance giants Fannie Mae and...
U.S. Sues BP, Well Owners, Driller, Insurer for Gulf Oil Spill Damages
Dec 16 2010 // The Obama administration Wednesday launched a legal battle against BP Plc and its partners by suing them for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, which could cost the companies billions of dollars. The lawsuit...
Florida Citrus Growers Get Break After Bitter Cold
Dec 16 2010 // Florida’s citrus growers got a respite Thursday from the bitter cold that damaged oranges and groves in many areas Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Paul Close of the U.S. National Weather Service in Ruskin,...
Senate Passes Tax Cut Plan, 81-19
Dec 15 2010 // A deal that President Barack Obama struck with Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts for nearly every working American and spur job growth sailed through the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The Senate passed the legislation in a...
Massachusetts Jury Orders Tobacco Firm to Pay $71 Million to Family
Dec 15 2010 // A jury Tuesday ordered U.S. cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. to pay damages to a dead smoker’s family for allegedly enticing the woman and other black children with free cigarettes given out decades ago. Evans vs...
