Latest France Headlines

All the headlines from our France Topic Page, ordered by recency.

$585 Million Settlement at Hand in Credit Lyonnais/ELIC Fraud Case

Sep 22 2003 // Nothing apparently concentrates the corporate mind so effectively as being named in a criminal complaint. A week after a federal grand jury in Los Angeles issued a sealed indictment which reportedly accused it, and...

Zurich to Sell Most French Business to Generali

Sep 8 2003 // Zurich Financial Services announced that it has agreed to sell its French life business, including its Eagle Star operations and parts of its non-life operations in the consumer and commercial segments, distributed by...

Credit Lyonnais, French Gov’t. Agree to $575M Settlement in Executive Life Case

Sep 4 2003 // France’s Credit Lyonnais (CL) and the Consortium de Réalisation (CDR), a French government agency established to handle the bank’s debt mountain in 1995, have agreed with federal prosecutors in Los Angeles to...

Best Affirms ‘A’ Rating of France’s Caisse Centrale de Reassurance

Jun 24 2003 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the ‘A’ (Excellent) financial strength rating of Caisse Centrale de Reassurance (CCR), a Paris based reinsurer, with a “positive” outlook.“The...

S&P Report Finds French Market is ‘Stable’

Jun 18 2003 // A report on the French insurance market released by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services calls the outlook in both the life and P/C sectors “stable.” S&P had previously classed the P/C...

Report Generali Seeking French Insurer

Jun 17 2003 // According to newspaper reports Italy’s Generali may soon make a 300 million euro ($355.5 million) bid for French insurer Le Continent in a bid to increase its share of the French market. It considers the country a...

AXA’s Gerard de La Martiniere to Head French Insurance Organization; Denis Duverne Elected to Board

May 14 2003 // Gerard de La Martiniere, the member of AXA’s Management Board in charge of Finance, Control and Strategy has been elected Chairman of the French Federation of Insurance Companies (F.F.S.A.), effective immediately,...

SCOR Posts $496 Million* Loss for 2002

Apr 1 2003 // France’s Scor Group, the world’s seventh largest reinsurer, registered a net loss of 455 million Euros ($496 million) for the year 2002; 55 million Euros ($60 million) more than it had said it expected in...

SCOR Sets Agenda for “Back on Track” Plan; May Sell Bermuda Operation

Jan 23 2003 // Denis Kessler, who recently took over as the head of France’s SCOR Group, revealed additional measures to implement his “Back on track Plan” for the company at yesterday’s Board of Directors...

Warnings Abound as Winter Hits Europe

Jan 6 2003 // Blizzards in France, floods in the U.K. and Germany, avalanches in the Alps – winter hit Europe particularly hard over the weekend. An unusually heavy snowfall in Northern France shut down the country’s main...

A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of AGF, Groupama

Dec 24 2002 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed its “Superior” ratings on two of France’s largest general insurers. Yesterday it confirmed the A++ (Superior) rating of Assurances Generales de France (AGF), but kept it under...

BNP Buys French Gov’t. Share of Credit Lyonnais for $2.2 Billion

Nov 25 2002 // France’s second largest bank, BNP Paribas, emerged as the winner of a surprise auction by the French government for its 10.9 percent share in Credit Lyonnais (CL), France’s fifth largest bank.Following a...

RMS Estimates Windstorm Jeanett May Cause $983 Million in Total Damages

Oct 31 2002 // California-based Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS), announced that the windstorm, designated Jeanett, which has hit the U.K., France, and the rest of northern Europe over the last several days may cause up to 1 billion...

Windstorms Batter U.K., France

Oct 28 2002 // Emergency Workers in Southern England and Northwest France were busy Monday morning cleaning up the debris and beginning infrastructure repairs after the passage of a powerful windstorm over the weekend blew down power...

S&P Revises Outlook on France’s MMA to Negative

Oct 14 2002 // Standard & Poor’s announced that it has revised its outlook on the single-‘A’-minus financial strength and counterparty credit ratings on the French p/c insurer Les Mutuelles du Mans Assurances IARD,...

Investigators Confirm French Supertanker Was Hit by Terrorist Attack

Oct 11 2002 // An official bulletin from the French Foreign Ministry confirmed that a team of French and U.S. investigators had found definitive evidence that the explosion and fire that engulfed the supertanker Limburg in the Gulf of...

Cause of French Tanker Blast/Fire Still Unknown

Oct 9 2002 // Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion and fire which ravaged the French supertanker Limburg, killing one crewman, in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday. The ship’s captain, Hubert Ardillon, told...

£150 Million Preliminary Estimate of Insured Losses in French Floods

Sep 12 2002 // The cost to France’s insurance industry from the severe flooding in three southeastern departments (See Insurance Journal Website Sept.10) will be around £150 million ($147 million) according to preliminary...

16 Dead, 18 Missing as Storms Hit Southern France

Sep 10 2002 // Thunderstorms of unprecedented intensity struck Southern France Sunday night and Monday, causing widespread flooding and knocking out road and rail transportation throughout the region. 16 people were killed as a direct...

S&P Revises Outlook on France’s Abeille to Positive

Jun 26 2002 // Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on French non-life insurer Abeille Assurances to “positive” from stable.”The change, said S&P, reflects “the likelihood of an upgrade by the...