January 2007/1

UK motor insurer Admiral has extended its long-term reinsurance agreement with Munich Re subsidiary Great Lakes Reinsurance.

Paris Re Holdings has become the latest reinsurer to launch a sidecar-style vehicle with the establishment of Triomphe Re, a $185mn Bermuda domiciled Class 3 reinsurer last month.

Mitchell Blaser, the former chief financial officer of Swiss Re’s Americas division, has formed a triumvirate of senior industry executives behind the $1bn start-up insurer, Ironshore Ltd.

US insurance broker AJ Gallagher said last week that it will take a $5mn-$10mn fourth quarter charge following a $36.9mn deal to settle a class-action lawsuit over contingent commissions.

A buyers’ market has seen plummeting airline rates with German airline Lufthansa leading the way, Insider Week can reveal.

Swiss giant Zurich Financial Services Group (ZFS) and lead underwriters UBS AG and Merrill Lynch International have been cleared by a US federal judge of securities-fraud claims following the spin-off of reinsurance subsidiary Converium Holding AG in 2001

Carbon Re, the Swiss reinsurer of greenhouse gas emissions-related projects, has launched Carbon Compliance Guarantee Insurance Syndicate (CCGI) to indemnify companies’ Certified Emission Reductions.

US insurer Chubb Corp became the latest company to settle with US regulators, on 28 December, and pledged to end the paying of contingent commissions to brokers at the end of 2006.

The independent London market broker Tyser & Co has reshuffled its management team and is in the throes of restructuring its shareholdings as a number of senior executives prepare to retire.

“Two large claims” incurred in January 2005 led to AM Best double downgrading Primary Group’s Irish insurance subsidiary Primary Insurance Company Ltd (PICL) before the Christmas break.

Lloyd’s first sidecar syndicate, Managing Agency Partners Ltd’s (MAP) Syndicate 6103, began underwriting last month after successfully raising £43mn in capital from Lloyd’s Names.