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On October 7, 2008, the New York Insurance Department and New York Department of Health will be holding a joint meeting to address out-of-network insurance coverage.  The hearing will be held in response to numerous consumer complaints regarding bills from specialists whom the consumers did not know were out-of-network. 

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Read More New York to Hold Joint Hearing on Out-of-Network Coverage

Reports indicate that state and federal regulators are now turning their attention to Fidelity’s and Schwab’s participation in the Auction Rate Securities (ARS) market. 

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Read More Regulators Probing Fidelity’s and Schwab’s Involvement in Auction Rate Securities Issues

On 22 August 2008, Aon Corporation (Aon) and Benfield Group Limited (Benfield) announced that the boards of both companies had unanimously approved an agreement under which Aon will acquire Benfield for £3.50 per share in cash and assume approximately £91 million of Benfield’s net debt, representing an enterprise value of £935 million ($1.75 billion) on a fully diluted basis. …
Read More UK/US: Aon to Acquire Benfield Group Limited

On Friday, August 15, 2008, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced that the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) had reached a limited agreement with the Allstate Companies (Allstate). …
Read More Allstate Agrees to Resolve Litigation with Florida Insurance Commission by Paying Fine, Decreasing Rates and Writing More Homeowners Insurance in Florida

UBS recently agreed to buy back $18.6B in auction rate securities (ARS) and pay $150M in penalties ($75M to the State of New York, and $75M to the North American Securities Administrators Association) to settle allegations made by the New York Attorney General and the Securities and Exchange Commission that UBS fraudulently marketed the safety of ARS to customers. …
Read More UBS Auction Rate Securities Settlement

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley recently announced a settlement with Morgan Stanley & Company (“Morgan Stanley”) to resolve allegations that Morgan Stanley sold high risk auction rate securities (ARS) to Massachusetts municipalities and presented the securities as safe investments. 

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Read More Morgan Stanley to Reimburse Massachusetts Municipalities for Auction Rate Securities

Alabama Governor Bob Riley announced on August 8, 2008 that Walter A. Bell will be resigning as Alabama’s Insurance Commissioner at the end of this month.  Bell has served as Insurance Commissioner since January 2003.  Last year, he served as president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”), making him the first Alabama commissioner to head the NAIC. …
Read More Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell Resigns

A group of Merrill Lynch entities (Merrill Lynch) recently filed a motion to dismiss a securities class action pending in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The plaintiffs generally assert that Merrill Lynch failed to disclose the extent of its subprime exposure arising out of its holdings in collateralized debt obligations. 

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Read More Merrill Lynch Seeks Dismissal of Subprime Based Securities Class Action

Plaintiff Long Island Insurance Company (“LIICO”) instituted a declaratory judgment action and moved for summary judgment against certain defendants, including its insured, Oneil Johnson (“Johnson”), seeking an order that it had no duty to defend or indemnify Johnson in an underlying personal injury action. 

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Read More New York State Court Finds That Insurer’s Nearly Two-Month Delay in Denying Coverage was Unreasonable as a Matter of Law

According to a recent report by Bloomberg News, states, cities, hospitals, and other municipal borrowers have now refinanced approximately $96.2 billion of their $166 billion in auction rate bonds, which amounts to about 58% of all auction-rate bonds.  The current $3 billion a week average rate of municipal bond refinancing has slowed a bit from the $5.5 billion a week average in April and May. …
Read More Decline in Municipal Auction-Rate Debt as Various States Continue to Refinance