May 2015/4

Share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

P&C (re)insurance stocks nudged up last week as The Insider 30 made a 0.80 percent gain.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has warned that many UK insurance companies still have a "considerable amount of work" to do in preparation for the implementation of Solvency II on 1 January 2016.

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), has stepped down after four years in the role.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has discovered "numerous examples" of poor practice in the handling of claims for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including delays in initial loss adjuster visits of up to three weeks.

PwC has been granted access to insolvent insurer Quinn's rating mechanisms after its administrators alleged that the professional services firm had underestimated the Irish carrier's technical provisions ahead of its EUR1.2bn collapse.

The UK's highest court has handed down a landmark decision in an asbestos-related dispute that will mean insurers are ultimately liable only for the portion of the exposure that they were on risk for.

Growth at the companies included in The Insurance Insider's fast-shrinking public Lloyd's composite picked up pace in the first quarter as three of the four carriers wrote notably more business despite a softening rating environment.

Bermudian and short-tail carriers handed back less capital during the first quarter of 2015 as a flurry of (re)insurers turned to M&A in a bid to create shareholder value.

Short-tail specialists delivered compressed operating returns during the first quarter of 2015 as underwriting performance deteriorated despite another benign period for catastrophe losses.

Operating returns for Bermudian carriers came under further pressure during the first quarter of 2015, as narrowing underwriting profitability, continued strain on investment income and increasing book value squeezed margins.

Credit Suisse Asset Management is preparing to launch a second rated reinsurance entity less than a year after it helped establish Kelvin Re.