Argentina: According to the national regulator, total premiums in the Argentinean insurance market increased 7.4% when comparing the twelve months ended April 30, 2009 with the prior twelve month period.  The fastest growing line of insurance for the period was workers compensation insurance, where total premiums increased 22.1%.  Automobile insurance remains the largest sector in the Argentinean insurance market, accounting for nearly half of the market’s total premiums.
Read More Latin American Update: Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela

The Argentinean authorities recently fined an individual insured 8 times premium and an insurance intermediary 15 times premium for illegally transacting life insurance business with a non-authorized foreign life insurer. …
Read More Argentinean Authorities Impose Total Fine of 23 Times Premium for Unauthorized Life Insurance Transaction with Foreign Insurer

An insurer’s motion to strike an insured’s bad faith count against it was recently denied in Antonacci v. Darwin Select Ins. Co., 2009 WL 1424676 (Conn. Super. April 28, 2009). 

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Read More Connecticut Superior Court Denies Insurer’s Motion to Strike Bad Faith Count

An insurer was recently granted summary judgment against its insured based on a commercial general liability insurance policy’s total liquor liability exclusion (“TLLE”). …
Read More Connecticut Superior Court Grants Summary Judgment for Insurer Based on Total Liquor Liability Exclusion

On June 4, 2009, Representatives Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Tom Price (R-GA) introduced H.R. 2733, the Indexed Annuities and Insurance Products Classification Act of 2009 (the “Bill”), in the U.S. House of Representatives.  If adopted, the Bill would nullify Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 151A which sought to classify indexed annuities as securities and subject them to federal regulation. …
Read More House of Representatives Introduces Bill to Nullify SEC Rule Regulating Indexed Annuities as Securities

As discussed here, the government monopoly over the Costa Rican insurance market was ended in the Fall of 2008.  Soon thereafter, the Costa Rican government began promulgating regulations governing the newly opened market (see here). …
Read More Foreign Companies Take Note: Costa Rican Regulator Clarifies Insurance Laws and Regulations Regarding Prohibitions Against Unauthorized Insurance Business, Cross-Border Insurance Exception, Surplus Lines and 4% Premium Tax

Fitch recently affirmed Costa Rica’s credit rating as stable.  It also affirmed the following: long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at “BB”; long-term local currency IDR at “BB+”; short-term IDR at “B”; country ceiling at “BB+”. …
Read More Fitch Report: Costa Rica’s Economic Outlook is Stable

This blog updates our April 24, 2009 posting.  The Texas Legislature adjourned last week without passing Senate Bill 1007 or  companion House Bill 2203 (the “Bills”) that would have authorized the continued operation of the Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”). …
Read More Texas Legislature Adjourns Without Reauthorizing the Department of Insurance

More than $9 million of the $65.8 settlement fund in the Bisys Group securities class action is missing.  At a hearing in late April before Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff,  lead plaintiff’s counsel, Gene Cauley, advised “the funds are presently unavailable to be delivered,” and when asked why, counsel responded by saying that “if I go into anymore detail, I think I might violate a privilege against self-incrimination.” 

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Read More Lead Plaintiff’s Counsel Pleads Guilty Over Missing Securities Class Action Settlement Funds

On May 26, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Merck’s petition for a writ of certiorari in the securities class action regarding Merck’s Vioxx disclosures.  The issue that the Supreme Court will address is what is required to establish “inquiry notice” sufficient to trigger the running of the two year statute of limitations for private securities lawsuits brought under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. …
Read More U.S. Supreme Court to Decide “Inquiry Notice” Standard