E&S/Specialty

Bermuda-based global specialty insurer Torus said it has named Carl Groth as group chief risk officer, a new position within the year-old company.

The annual consumer price index may have dropped 0.4 in 2009, but the costs of health care and legal services that impact insurers rose anywhere from 3 percent to 6 percent, said Insurance Information Institute.

Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered his state's insurance department not to participate in a National Association of Insurance Commissioners climate risk survey, one official said.

House Democrats are planning a vote next week on legislation that would repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act anti-trust laws exemption for health care and medical malpractice insurers.

The revival of the New York Insurance Exchange will not have a huge impact on the insurance marketplace because the securities market is already filling the capacity needs of insurers, the Insurance Information Institute's president said.

Now that the Republicans have won a crucial 41st vote in the U.S. Senate, will any health care reform bill pass Congress this year? That's the query posed to readers on NU's Web site at www.property-casualty.com.