One of Pat Oliphant’s more recent editorial cartoons shows presidential candidate John McCain held in the trunk of an enraged elephant labeled “The Economy.” “My friends,” says McCain to a bewildered Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, “kindly pay no attention …
The by now all too familiar litany of the world’s financial woes took pride of place at A.M. Best’s well-attended conference (over 240 attendees) in London on October 15. Roger Sellek, the rating agency’s managing director-global financial services, called the …
Claims Managers ‘Don’t Like Ike’ as Losses from the Hurricane Pile Up on Top of Gustav’s Whatever goes around comes around, and in an election year it was almost inevitable that somebody would reintroduce legislation to “close the tax loophole” …
Speculation Abounds as AIG Readies to Sell Off Assets For the moment, giant American International Group (AIG) lives on government life support, for which it’s paying 850 basis points (8.5 percent) over LIBOR, effectively 11.4 percent, on an $85 billion …
Europe’s largest companies take risk management seriously. So seriously that the Federation of European Risk Management Association’s (FERMA) conference last week in Brussels was a well attended event. Although it wasn’t on the official agenda, the current crisis in the …
The Modernization of Lloyd’s and the London Market Any institution — and there aren’t many — that survives and thrives for 320 years must find ways to adapt to changing conditions. Lloyd’s of London’s transformation offers some insights as to …
Combined Firm Doubles Employee Benefits Business Willis Group Holdings Chairman and CEO Joe Plumeri holds a reputation for taking on challenges. On June 8 his company gave him one. Willis announced it has agreed to buy Virginia-based rival Hilb Rogal …
Asian Insurers May Buy in U.S., E.U.; Bermuda Beefs Up Regulators; Zurich Favored for Acquisition Asian insurers may go on a buying spree. A number of companies, particularly China’s major players, are likely to seize the credit crunch as an …
Catastrophe Modeling Pioneer Clark Analyzes an Industry She Helped Create Karen Clark, former CEO of AIR Worldwide, now heads her own firm Karen Clark & Co. (www.karenclarkandco.comwww.karenclarkandco.com). She made the statement, “garbage in, gospel out,” at the European Insurance Forum …
Quake Shatters China’s Sichuan Province; Willis Shows Off New London Headquarters; AIG Wins One, Loses One After five weeks of high level discussions, Australia’s QBE Group withdrew its offer to acquire Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG), following the decision of …
