Codex-Insurance, news and informations about insurance topics

The three largest global reinsurance brokers — Aon Benfield, Guy Carpenter & Co., and Willis Re — said they all saw a drop in overall January renewal rates. Aon Benfield found that rate decreases (adjusted for changes in exposure) for peak zones of U.S. hurricane and U.S. earthquake risk ranged from a -5 to a -15%, according to its January "Reinsurance Market Outlook."
In BestWeek Europe, the first indications about January 1 reinsurance renewals are coming from the big brokers, and the message is one of softness. Reinsurance rates in Europe and the United Kingdom, in particular, are flat to falling overall, even though Windstorm Klaus proved to be the costliest natural catastrophe worldwide last year, and bank and business failures were thought to have been sufficient to put pressure on professional lines.

Also in BestWeek U.S./Canada, Chris Dodd, the powerful Connecticut senator and central figure in a number of insurance industry reforms pending in this congressional session, will not run again for the seat he's held for almost three decades. Among the most senior Democrats in the Senate, Dodd is chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. He was also hand-picked by Senator Edward Kennedy, his closest friend in the Senate, to champion the Senate's health care reform bill as Kennedy succumbed to terminal cancer. Both bills are still subject to debate and require some lawmaker compromises before final passage, putting him — as Dodd described it — "at the center of the two most important issues of our time."

BestWeek is published by A.M. Best Co. for insurance professionals. To subscribe, visit http://www.ambest.com/sales/BestWeek.

Source: http://www3.ambest.com/frames/frameserver.asp?site=press&tab=1&altsrc=14&altnum=&refnum=60497353624966496955