Latest USA Headlines

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

U.S. Commercial Insurance Prices to Firm in 2013: Marsh

Feb 11 2013 // Rates for commercial lines insurance will continue to rise in 2013, thanks to above average losses, low investment returns and receding reserve releases. However, according to a report by Marsh, traditional signs of a...

A Future Filled With Driverless Cars

Feb 11 2013 // Visions of robotic self-driving cars may appear like something from a George Lucas film but in June 2011, this vision took a giant leap toward becoming reality when Nevada became the first state to enact legislation that...

Arch to Acquire Interests in California Firm From Bankrupt PMI

Feb 8 2013 // Arch Capital Group Ltd., through its U.S.-based subsidiaries (Arch U.S. MI), will acquire all outstanding equity interests in San Francisco, Calif.-based CMG Mortgage Insurance Co. from bankrupt Arizona-based PMI Mortgage...

Ratings Recap: Auto Club (Michigan), Atlas Financial, Merced Mutual, ING US (Notes), PEMCO

Feb 8 2013 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘A-‘ (Excellent) from ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to “a-” from “a” of Auto Club...

U.S., States Weigh Suing Moody’s Over Mortgage Ratings

Feb 8 2013 // The U.S. Justice Department and multiple states are discussing also suing Moody’s Corp. for defrauding investors, according to people familiar with the matter, but any such move will likely wait until a similar...

Catholic Bishops Reject Obama Compromise on Contraception Coverage

Feb 8 2013 // U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the Obama Administration’s latest bid for compromise over a hotly disputed health policy that requires employees at religiously affiliated institutions to have access...

Court Says Trial Must Decide Travelers, Reinsurers Asbestos Case

Feb 8 2013 // New York state’s highest court on Thursday said a trial must determine whether Travelers Cos. deliberately structured a nearly $1 billion asbestos settlement to force its reinsurers to pay more than their fair...

Catlin Group’s $339 Million 2012 Profit Less than Forecast as Sandy Loss Widens

Feb 8 2013 // Bermuda-based insurer Catlin said its profit fell short of analysts’ forecasts because of a bigger than expected claims bill from Superstorm Sandy and the Costa Concordia shipwreck.Catlin, operator of the biggest...

Australia, Indonesia Floods Highlight Aon Benfield’s January Cat Report

Feb 8 2013 // In its latest monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, focuses on the torrential monsoonal rains, which caused severe flooding...

West Virginia Court Rules Negligent Mine Inspectors Can Be Sued

Feb 7 2013 // Private and federal mine safety inspectors can be held liable and sued when a negligent inspection results in the wrongful death of a coal miner, the state Supreme Court ruled in handing a victory to the widows of two men...

RBS Fined $612 Million for Libor Rate Rigging

Feb 7 2013 // Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated benchmark interest rates, and regulators warned there is more to come in the global investigation.RBS became...

Government’s Case Against S&P: Ratings Stopped Making Sense

Feb 6 2013 // Barely two weeks after the big subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. went bankrupt, a top Standard & Poor’s executive assured Congress that her employer could be counted on to sound the alarm for the next...

BP Balks at Oil Spill Price Tag Sought by States

Feb 6 2013 // BP Plc has tallied up claims made by states and local governments on the U.S. Gulf Coast for economic and property damages from the Macondo oil spill, and come up with a figure of $34 billion, which it deems...

Lockton Re Hires New Execs to Strengthen Global Reinsurance Capabilities

Feb 6 2013 // Privately-owned Lockton and its specialist reinsurance division, Lockton Re, announced the strengthening of its global brokerage and client relationship capabilities, with a number of senior level hires both in London and...

U.S. Hits S&P with $5 Billion Fraud Lawsuit Over Mortgage Securities Ratings

Feb 5 2013 // The U.S. government is seeking $5 billion in its civil lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s, accusing the ratings service of defrauding investors, in one of the most ambitious cases yet from the Justice Department...

BP, States May Still Be Far Apart Over Oil Spill Deal

Feb 4 2013 // It is a question that has lawyers and many others on the U.S. Gulf coast buzzing: Will BP strike a massive deal to settle the remaining claims over the Gulf of Mexico well blowout?BP could be nearing a settlement of...

S&P Expects Government Lawsuit Over Its Pre-Crisis Credit Ratings

Feb 4 2013 // Standard & Poor’s said it expects to be the target of a U.S. Department of Justice civil lawsuit over its mortgage bond ratings, the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating agency over alleged...

Obama Offers Compromise on Birth Control Insurance Coverage

Feb 4 2013 // The Obama administration on Friday sought to settle a dispute with religious leaders over whether employees at faith-affiliated universities, hospitals and other institutions should have access to health insurance coverage...

Study: Manufacturing Driving Growth in Ohio

Feb 4 2013 // Manufacturing is again driving Ohio’s economic expansion, with more than half of the state’s counties dependent on the sector, according to a newspaper analysis.The Dayton Daily News reports that more than...

Plains States Remain in Severe Drought; Spring Crops in Jeopardy

Feb 1 2013 // The unrelenting drought gripping key farming states in the U.S. Plains shows no signs of abating, and it will take a deluge of snow or rain to restore critical moisture to farmland before spring planting of new crops, a...