Latest USA Headlines

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

Sony Hack Reveals Need for Business, Government to Collaborate on Cyber Issues

Dec 21 2014 // Back-channel talks between Sony Pictures Entertainment and the White House to coordinate a response to a debilitating cyber-attack didn’t prevent a public disagreement over the studio’s decision to pull its...

McDonald’s Is Joint Employer with Franchisees: National Labor Board

Dec 21 2014 // McDonald’s Corp. wields enough control over its franchisees that it should be jointly responsible for the working conditions of their employees, according to charges by the U.S. labor board critics say threatens to...

U.S. Auto Recalls Set Record at 60 Million for Year

Dec 21 2014 // U.S. automobile recalls surpassed the 60 million mark for the first time in a single year, largely because of the rush to prevent more deaths from defective General Motors Co. ignition switches and Takata Corp. air...

Fireman’s Fund Timeline: Through Earthquake, Amex and More

Dec 19 2014 // The sale of a Fireman’s Fund unit from Allianz SE to Ace Ltd. stands to further diminish an iconic U.S. insurance brand that dates to the 1800s.The buyer said Thursday that it will integrate the operation, which...

MetLife Considers Appeal of Systemic Risk Label

Dec 19 2014 // MetLife Inc., the biggest U.S. life insurer by assets, was labeled a systemically important financial institution by a council of regulators and said it will consider whether to sue the government over the decision.The...

Anbang Expands Reach With Diverse Investments in China, Europe & US

Dec 19 2014 // Anbang Insurance Group Co., the Chinese insurer that’s buying New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, is expanding at home with investments from China Minsheng Banking Corp. to Financial Street Holdings Co.The...

14 Charged for Roles in Deadly 2012 Meningitis Outbreak

Dec 18 2014 // In the biggest criminal case ever brought in the U.S. over contaminated medicine, 14 owners or employees of a Massachusetts pharmacy were charged Wednesday in connection with a 2012 meningitis outbreak that killed 64...

With TRIA Renewal Efforts Killed, Some Predict Market Chaos

Dec 18 2014 // Property/casualty insurance industry groups, business associations and observers alike were quick to condemn the death of TRIA renewal for 2014. Without federal terrorism reinsurance in place for 2015, they predicted...

Fraud Scheme Leads to Prison for Former Oklahoma Insurance Firm Employee

Dec 18 2014 // The former employee of an insurance company faces two years in federal prison and more than $168,000 in restitution after being sentenced on a fraud conviction by U.S. district judge in Oklahoma City.Carla Jo Mires, of...

ACE to Buy Fireman’s Fund Personal Lines; Famous Brand Fading Away

Dec 18 2014 // Allianz Group has agreed to sell the U.S. personal lines business of its Fireman’s Fund unit to ACE for $365 million by means of renewal rights arrangement.The merger of the personal lines business with ACE and the...

Sony’s Unprecedented Cyber Attack: Deep, Costly, Controversial

Dec 18 2014 // Sony Pictures’ decision to let Seth Rogen make a comedy about a plot to kill a head of state will potentially cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars after a devastating cyber-attack linked to North Korea.The...

XL Group Expands Executive Liability Protection in U.S.

Dec 18 2014 // XL Group’s Professional Liability arm has released a new Executive and Corporate Securities Liability policy form to protect companies and their directors and officers from what it terms “an increasingly...

Top 10 Casualty Insurance Trends for 2015: Marsh

Dec 17 2014 // While casualty insurance rates remain stable overall and new capacity continues to enter the market, certain classes of business continue to be difficult to place, according to Marsh’s U.S. Casualty Practice.The...

U.S. Safety Agency Readies for Legal Battle with Takata

Dec 17 2014 // U.S. regulators investigating failures of Takata Corp. air bags are preparing for a legal fight in case the Japanese parts maker doesn’t comply with a request to expand a recall.The National Highway Traffic Safety...

Senate Confirms Rosekind As U.S. Highway Safety Chief

Dec 17 2014 // The Senate confirmed Mark Rosekind to lead the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has come under criticism this year for not responding more quickly to evidence of potentially deadly vehicle...

Nursing Home Liabilities Transfer Could Be Fraud: Judge

Dec 17 2014 // The owners of a multistate chain of nursing homes may have committed fraud by transferring liabilities to a shell company that later lost more than $2 billion in jury verdicts to families who claimed relatives died of...

OneBeacon Sells Lawyers Professional Liability Business to Argo

Dec 17 2014 // OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd. has sold the renewal rights to its lawyers professional liability business to Argo Group US, Inc., a member of Argo Group International Holdings Ltd.The transaction includes renewal rights to...

Senate Fails to Renew Terrorism Insurance

Dec 17 2014 // A U.S. program that backstops insurance companies’ losses from acts of terrorism is set to end after the Senate didn’t extend it.Efforts to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act for six years fell apart...

Swiss Re sigma 2014 Disaster Insured Loss Estimates = $34 Billion

Dec 17 2014 // According to Swiss Re’s preliminary sigma estimates, total economic losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters were $113 billion in 2014, down from $135 billion in 2013. Out of the total economic losses,...

Terrorism Insurance Bill Tagged with Community Bank Provision

Dec 16 2014 // When the U.S. House of Representatives approved a terrorism insurance bill last week, it contained a little-noticed provision that would require at least one member of the Federal Reserve’s board to have community...