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

Costa Rican President Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez recently signed into law the new Ley Reguladora del Mercado de Seguros, thereby ending the Instituto Nacional de Seguros’ (INS) more than eighty-year-old monopoly over the Costa Rican insurance business.  The Consejo Nacional de Supervision del Sistema Financiero (CONASSIF) is charged with establishing an insurance regulatory authority and implementing the other mandates of the new law. …
Read More Costa Rica Opens Insurance Market to Competition

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

A New York state court recently dismissed claims brought by the liquidator of a hedge fund against the fund’s accountants on the ground that the claims were barred by the doctrine of in pari delicto.  Bullmore v. Ernst & Young Cayman Islands, No. 104314/05 (June 19, 2008). 

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Read More Hedge Fund Liquidators Barred from Bringing Negligence Claims Against Auditors

In response to concerns over the adequacy of reserves held by some charitable gift annuity programs, the New York State Insurance Department issued a notice imposing additional requirements for such reserves. 

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Read More New York Imposes Additional Charitable Gift Annuity Requirements