In a recently released report, Brazilian insurance regulator SUSEP maintained its projection of approximately 4.9% insurance premium growth in 2009, despite revising downward from 1.5% to -.5% its assumption about GDP growth for the year.  4.9% premium growth in 2009 would result in total premiums in Brazil of approximately US$35.5 billion. …
Read More Brazilian Regulator Predicts 4.9% Premium Growth Projection for 2009, Reports 7.05% Premium Growth for 1Q09

On Thursday, May 28, 2009, it was announced that Eric Dinallo, Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department (“NYSID”), intends to resign effective as of July 3, 2009.  Dinallo has accepted a position as a visiting professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. …
Read More New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo Resigns

Midgulf (M) was a trader in sulphur and Groupe Chimiche Tunisien (G) was a company owned by the state of Tunisia. The parties entered into a contract for the sale and purchase of sulphur in June 2008 and a further contract for the same in July 2008. The June 2008 contract contained a London arbitration clause. G complained about the quality of the sulphur provided under both contracts and subsequently terminated the July contract. A dispute arose as to whether the July 2008 contract contained a London arbitration clause. 

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Read More UK: Midgulf International Ltd v Groupe Chimiche Tunisien (2009) [2009] EWHC 963 (Comm)

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred near the coastal Honduran island of Roatan at 3:24 a.m. local time on Thursday May 28, 2009.  Although the earthquake caused relatively little property damage to the tourist resorts on Roatan or to buildings on mainland Honduras and nearby Guatemala and Belize, it may pose the risk of business interruption claims due to infrastructure damage in the Honduran business hub of San Pedro Sula. …
Read More Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake in Honduras Causes Relatively Minor Property Damage But May Pose Business Interruption Issues

On May 21, 2009, Representative Ron Klein (D-FL) reintroduced the Homeowners’ Defense Act of 2009, H.R. 2555 (the “Act”), which would allow states to join a national catastrophe insurance pool and would potentially reduce the cost and improve the availability of homeowners’ insurance in Florida and in other states.  As we reported here, the Act is similar to the legislation previously passed in the House, but failed to gain Senate support in 2007 and 2008. 

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Read More Representative Ron Klein (D-FL) Reintroduces the Homeowners’ Defense Act

The Tennessee Court of Appeals recently reversed a trial court and held that an insurer did not have a duty to defend under parents’ homeowners’ policy because coverage for childrens’ act of shooting at passing trucks on a highway was barred by the policy’s intentional acts exclusion. 

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Read More Tennessee Court of Appeals Holds That Intentional Acts Exclusion Bars Coverage for Children Shooting at Trucks on Highway

On May 21, 2009, three important pieces of insurance industry legislation, which failed to pass in previous years, were reintroduced in the United States House of Representatives. …
Read More Congress Reintroduces Legislation Affecting the Insurance Industry

In a recent interview with Latino Insurance, Manuel Aguilera, president of Mexico’s insurance regulator (Comision Nacional de Seguros y Fianzas), reportedly commented that implementation in Latin America of the concepts underlying Solvency II is an important and achievable goal for each of the countries’ regulators. 

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Read More Solvency II in Latin America? La Latinoamericanizacion de Solvencia II . . .