Reinsurance

With the United States at the epicenter of a recession fueled by the mortgage and credit market crises, ripples are still being felt in the global reinsurance market.

U.S. reinsurers took a beating in their surplus during the first half, seeing a drop of $6.9 billion from last year--down 9.5 percent to $65.9 billion in 2009, according to the Reinsurance Association of America.

Operators of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico may have breathed a big sigh of relief as they eyed the easterly track of Hurricane Bill recently because many drastically shrank their hurricane coverage programs, insurance executives reported late last month.

Attorneys will be in federal court in Chicago on Monday to discuss management of a prospective class-action for more than 500 insurers, which accuses American International Group of civil racketeering and fraud.

Federal authorities clashed publicly with Maurice Greenberg over the significance of his agreement to pay $15 million in settling charges of fraudulent accounting while he headed up American International Group.

Partner Reinsurance was the champion in an 11-team Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) softball tournament, hosted by Aon Benfield, it was announced.