Top lawmakers met with President Obama Wednesday in order to regain momentum on financial regulatory reform legislation in Congress.  Following the meeting, Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) expressed confidence that the Senate would soon act – perhaps by Memorial Day – on the financial reform bill that was approved by the Banking Committee on a party line vote on Monday. 

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Read More Senate Tees Up Financial Regulatory Reform Following Healthcare Victory

On 24 March 2010, the European Commission (the Commission) adopted its long-awaited new block exemption regulation for the insurance sector, which will come into force on 1 April 2010.  Block exemptions are an instrument of European competition law that remove certain categories of agreement from the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements set out in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (previously Article 81 EC Treaty). 

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Read More EU: European Commission Adopts New Competition Block Exemption Regulation for the Insurance Sector

The NAIC issued a press release (the “Release”) earlier this month announcing its intent to hold a public hearing on the emergence of stranger originated/owned annuity transactions (“STAT”).  STATs are similar to stranger owned life insurance transactions (“STOLI”), which have been the subject of regulatory scrutiny for a number of years. 

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Read More NAIC Announces Intent to Hold Hearing on Stranger Owned Annuities

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in Hong Kong (the OCI) reported that the Hong Kong insurance market posted a total underwriting profit of HK$2.2 billion (US283.5 million) for 2009. This represents a 46.6% increase over 2008. Overall, the sector enjoyed growth in general insurance (gross premiums increased by 5.7% to HK$28.6 billion and net premiums by 7.1% to HK$20.5 billion compared with the previous year, although the overall business growth was offset by a fall in marine business and goods-in-transit business), and non linked individual life and annuity lines (business rose 11.3% to HK$91.2 billion in 2009). 

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Read More Hong Kong: Majority of Business Lines Show Gains in 2009

A Brazilian court recently awarded US$ 1.2 million to the family of a passenger on the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil last year.  Air France’s insurers, led by AXA, reportedly intend to appeal the decision. …
Read More Brazilian Court Awards US$ 1.2 Million Award to Family of Air France Brazil Crash Victim — Insurer Intends to Appeal

It has been reported that Karel van Hulle, head of insurance and pensions at the European Commission, confirmed that Solvency II will come into force in October 2012. Speaking at an Insurance Institute of London lecture at Lloyd’s on 17 March 2010, he denied that there were sound reasons to push back the deadline. …
Read More EU: Commissioner in Charge of Solvency II Confirms 2012 Implementation

EAPD will be attending the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Spring 2010 National Meeting and the International Association of Insurance Receivers Spring 2010 Meeting in Denver, Colorado from Thursday, March 25 to Sunday, March 28. 

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Read More EAPD at NAIC and IAIR Spring 2010 Meetings

After another week of fine tuning and vote counting, House leaders released the final text of their healthcare bill on Thursday, in addition to official cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  These steps set the wheels in motion for a weekend vote on the measure, and after a frenzied race to secure the necessary 216 votes for passage, the House approved its final healthcare reform efforts in a historic Sunday night vote. …
Read More Last Week in DC: The Healthcare Reform Debate – March 22, 2010

Employers Reinsurance Company, now known as Westport Insurance Corporation (“Westport”), provided reinsurance coverage for insurance policies issued by Connecticut Specialty Insurance Company (the “Reinsurance Agreement”).  Royal Surplus Lines Insurance Company, later known as Arrowood Surplus Lines Insurance Company (“Arrowood”), entered into an agreement by which it assumed Connecticut Specialty’s liabilities under certain policies, including a general liability policy issued to Equity Residential (the “Policy”).
Read More Connecticut Federal Court Finds that Reinsurer Does Not Have to Follow Cedent’s Fortunes