On 20 March 2009, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) wrote to compliance officers of all the firms which hold client money permissions to remind them of their responsibilities in abiding with Principle 10: “A firm must arrange adequate protection for clients’ assets when it is responsible for them”. 

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Read More UK: FSA Writes to Compliance Officers Regarding Adequate Protection for Clients’ Assets

A federal judge has sentenced two former executives of collapsed health care financing company National Century Financial Enterprises (“NCFE”), to decades in prison for their roles in a $2.8 billion fraud scheme. 

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Read More NCFE Executives Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Role in Company’s Collapse and $2.8 Billion Fraud

Following agreement on the Solvency II Directive framework (see our blog here), a recent CEIOPS Members Meeting held on 25/26 March 2009 has identified the importance of the implementation of the Solvency II  regime. 

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Read More EU: Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) Identify Areas for Refinement Under Solvency II

On March 26, 2009, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour signed into law House Bill 777 (the “New Producer Law”), whereby the Mississippi Insurance Department will adopt the NAIC uniform standards for the licensing of producers.

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Read More Mississippi Adopts NAIC Uniform Producer Licensing Standards

In Westport Ins. Corp. v. Coffman, Case No. C2-05-1152 (S.D. Ohio Jan. 29, 2009), the federal district court for the Southern District of Ohio held that an underlying class action lawsuit filed against an insured attorney and his clients, and the subsequent malpractice claim filed by the clients against the insured attorney, constitute a single claim and are therefore subject to a single per-claim limit of liability. 

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Read More Ohio Federal Court: Class Action Against Attorney and His Clients and Malpractice Claim are “Related” Under Policy’s Multiple Insureds, Claims and Claimants Provision

Shareholders for Affiliated Computer Systems, Inc. (ACS), a Fortune 500 company in the information technology sector, filed suit against ACS and certain of its directors in Delaware state court in early 2007. 

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Read More Demand Not Futile in Shareholder Derivative Litigation Arising Out of Proposed ACS Buyout

In Wagner v. United National Insurance Co. et al. (click here to read the decision), the Supreme Court of Nebraska affirmed a district ruling that a regulatory exclusion in a D&O policy excluded coverage for the underlying action brought by the Director of Insurance of the State of Nebraska in his capacity as the bankruptcy liquidator of the insured, an insolvent insurance company. 

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Read More Regulatory Exclusion Bars Coverage for Lawsuit Brought by the Director of Insurance

Recently, the United States Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) has announced that certain life insurers that have acquired banks and thrifts are eligible to receive assistance from the Capital Purchase Program, a sub-program of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. 

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Read More United States Treasury Department to Offer Financial Assistance to Life Insurers

After almost eight years of litigation, years of mediation, and failed partial settlements, the coordinated cases captioned as In re Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation (21-MC-92) appear to be on track for a global settlement. 

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Read More $586 Million Global Settlement Reached in the IPO Securities Litigation