Latest USA Headlines

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

Willis Among Targets of Stanford Third Party Class Actions

Mar 20 2012 // Victims of Allen Stanford’s estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme won a victory when a federal appeals court said they may pursue class-action litigation against third parties they believe aided in the now-convicted...

Court Allows Suspension of Cardinal Health’s Florida Shipping Center

Mar 19 2012 // A U.S. appeals court allowed the government to suspend Cardinal Health Inc.’s license to distribute potentially addictive drugs from a Florida facility, part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s battle...

2012 Hot Markets: Green Building, Retrofits Offer Growing Opportunity

Mar 19 2012 // This article is part of our Hot Insurance Markets for 2012 special feature.Green homes accounted for 17 percent of the overall residential construction market in 2011. And the trend of going green isn’t expected to...

U.S. Treasury Selling Off $6B in AIG Stock

Mar 19 2012 // The U.S. Treasury Department is selling $6 billion worth of American International Group stock and struck another deal for the insurer to pay down $8.5 billion more in obligations, taking a major step forward in an...

2012 Hot Markets: Healthcare Remains a Healthy Market

Mar 19 2012 // This article is part of our Hot Insurance Markets for 2012 special feature.Healthcare is one of the country’s largest industries. Annual spending on healthcare in the U.S. tops $2.6 trillion, more than 16 percent of...

Travelers Wins Reversal in $500M Asbestos Case

Mar 19 2012 // Travelers Cos. has won the reversal of a court order directing it to pay more than $500 million to satisfy asbestos-related claims stemming from its coverage of policyholder Johns-Manville Corp.In the latest ruling in a...

2012 Hot Markets: New Hope in Housing Market

Mar 19 2012 // This article is part of our Hot Insurance Markets for 2012 special feature.2012 is delivering a sense of growing optimism for the housing industry – a welcomed relief to a market that has been troubled in recent years....

La Niña to Fade but South Should Expect Dry Conditions

Mar 19 2012 // The La Niña weather pattern blamed for a devastating drought in Texas and a bad dry spell in South America should be gone by the end of April, but its impact will persist in large swaths of the southern United States.The...

BP’s $7.8 Billion Deal May Speed Gulf Spill Payments

Mar 19 2012 // The estimated $7.8 billion deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential...

Towers Watson Receives Patents for Risk Modeling Technique

Mar 16 2012 // Towers Watson said it has won two U.S. patents for its financial modeling technique designed to help insurance executives statistically sample and better understand and calculate risk exposures in real time.The global...

SEC, Citgroup May Win Appeal in Mortgage Fraud Case

Mar 16 2012 // A federal appeals court stopped just short of throwing out a judge’s controversial rejection of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s $285 million fraud settlement with Citigroup Inc over mortgage...

Millions in U.S. at Risk from Rising Sea Levels: Report

Mar 15 2012 // Sea level rise due to global warming has doubled the annual risk of coastal flooding of historic proportions across widespread areas of the United States, according to a report from the non-profit research group Climate...

Whistleblowers Reaping Rewards in U.S. Mortgage Suits

Mar 15 2012 // Troubled homeowners are not the only ones set to get a financial lift from the U.S. government’s $25 billion landmark mortgage settlement.Whistleblowers who were instrumental in revealing epidemic mortgage abuses,...

Departing Goldman Sachs Banker Slams ‘Rip-Off’ Culture

Mar 15 2012 // Goldman Sachs faced an unprecedented assault from one of its own on Wednesday after a banker published a withering resignation letter in the New York Times, calling the Wall Street titan a “toxic” place where...

Securities Fraud Settlements in 2011 Were Lowest in Decade

Mar 14 2012 // Angry investors are seeing far fewer financial benefits from lawsuits accusing corporate America of securities fraud, but may be on the cusp of a turnaround.The number and size of securities fraud settlements that won...

Update: Insurance Wholesaler AmWINS Is Recapitalizing: CEO DeCarlo

Mar 13 2012 // The owners of AmWINS Group Inc., the largest wholesale insurance broker in the United States by premiums placed, have put the company up for sale, expecting a valuation of about $1.5 billion, three people familiar with the...

Hiscox Appoints Walter as U.S. CEO; Head as Chief Underwriting Officer

Mar 12 2012 // Hiscox made a number of changes to its U.S. Management Team, appointing a new CEO and chief underwriting officer for Hiscox USA. Ben Walter, current chief operating officer of Hiscox USA has been promoted to CEO effective...

ICA Declares Flood Zone Catastrophe; Economic Losses May Top $1.5 Billion

Mar 12 2012 // The Insurance Council of Australia has declared widespread areas of New South Wales and Victoria a formal catastrophe zone. The ICA said the declaration covers the NSW Riverina, NSW Central West and northern Victoria,...

U.S. to Seek Court Approval for $25 Billion Mortgage Deal with Big Banks

Mar 11 2012 // A previously announced $25 billion settlement between five major banks accused of abusive mortgage practices and government officials will be filed in federal court on Monday, people familiar with the matter said late...

Captives Bring Premium Dollars and Jobs to Missouri

Mar 9 2012 // When it comes to the captive insurance industry, slow and steady growth is just fine with the state of Missouri. But it’s not like the state is reluctant to encourage captives to form or relocate there. Far from...