Latest USA Headlines

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

Willis to Release Q4 Earnings Today; Conference Call Details

Feb 11 2009 // Willis Group Holdings Limited will release earnings for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2008 after the market closes on Wednesday, February 11, 2009. Copies of the release will be available soon thereafter within...

Consumers Miss More Debt Payments; Lenders Move to Stem Losses

Feb 10 2009 // U.S. consumers are falling further behind on their debt payments even as both borrowers and lenders struggle to keep the debt burden from getting even heavier in the face of a worsening recession and employment picture, a...

Scruggs to Appear in Court Next Week

Feb 9 2009 // Disbarred attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who is serving a five-year prison sentence in a high profile judicial bribery conspiracy, is scheduled to appear in federal court in Mississippi Tuesday.Scruggs was...

Treasury to Approve TARP Bailout Funds for Life Insurance Companies

Feb 9 2009 // Insurance companies that applied for capital injections from the government’s $700 billion financial bailout fund could get approval as soon as Monday, two sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.Some...

Business Moves

Feb 8 2009 // Liberty Mutual, WausauLiberty Mutual Group, which sells insurance both direct and through independent agents, is discontinuing direct distribution to mid-sized businesses and now plans to distribute its commercial...

People

Feb 8 2009 // Linda Timmons has been promoted to director of communications for the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT). In this position, Timmons will manage the organization’s internal and external communications,...

USC Geographers Create U.S. ‘Death Map’ of Natural Event Fatalities by County

Feb 8 2009 // University of South Carolina geographers have produced a map of natural-hazard mortality in the United States.The map, featured in the International Journal of Health Geographics, gives a county-level representation of the...

U.S. Lawmakers Vow More Food Safety Funds As Peanut Recalls Set Record

Feb 6 2009 // Lawmakers vowed this week to press for stronger food safety laws and more money for inspections as the list of recalled peanut products surpassed 1,000 in an ongoing national salmonella outbreak.“There is an openness...

California’s W. Brown to Underwrite Aviation Insurance For Catlin US

Feb 5 2009 // Catlin Group Ltd., an international specialty property/casualty insurer and reinsurer, reported that W. Brown & Associates Insurance Services will underwrite general aviation insurance for clients nationwide on behalf...

Two Florida Insurance Scam Artists Lose Mail Fraud Appeal

Feb 5 2009 // Two men sentenced to federal prison for cheating investors out of more than $100 million in an insurance scheme have failed to convince an appeals court that they were unfairly convicted of mail fraud.The 11th U.S. Circuit...

Congress May Probe AIG Pricing, Pay Practices

Feb 5 2009 // An influential U.S. congressman, concerned that American International Group Inc’s $150 billion federal bailout could be undermining the broader U.S. insurance market, is digging into claims that the insurer is...

U.S. Senate Rejects Cutting Company Repatriation Tax Rate

Feb 4 2009 // The U.S. Senate Tuesday defeated a provision to slash the tax rate on profits that companies bring into the United States from overseas, voting not to include it in the economic stimulus package.The measure would have...

ING to Sell Part of ING Canada

Feb 4 2009 // A unit of European financial services giant ING Groep NV is selling a C$1.75 billion (US $1.41 billion) chunk of its ownership stake in ING Canada, the companies said Tuesday. The ING Groep subsidiary will sell C$850...

Ratings Roundup: Aflac, Scottish Re (U.S.), Hanover Fire, Omega

Feb 4 2009 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A+’ (Superior) and downgraded the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to “aa-” from “aa” of American Family Life Assurance...

Recession, Credit Crisis Stall Louisiana’s Hurricane Recovery Bonds

Feb 2 2009 // The U.S. recession and credit crisis have stalled a financing program created to help Louisiana recover from 2005’s devastating hurricanes, the southern state’s secretary for economic development told...

Marine Insurance Group Sees ‘Tough Times’ for Insurers

Feb 2 2009 // According to Deirdre Littlefield, president of the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), “While the insurance industry may be more insulated from failure than others in the financial sector, it will not...

Chubb’s Profits Contracted in 2008

Jan 30 2009 // Fourth quarter profits at Warren, New Jersey-based The Chubb Corp. fell 37 percent to $407 million from $650 million in the same quarter last year.For the full year, net income was down 36 percent to $1.8 billion from $2.8...

State Regulators Deny Life Insurers’ Bid for Looser Capital Requirements

Jan 30 2009 // State insurance regulators voted against a proposal to loosen capital requirements for the battered life insurance industry, shooting down hopes for up to $30 billion in relief.The National Association of Insurance...

S&P Assigns Preliminary Ratings to Atlas Re V Securitization

Jan 29 2009 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned its preliminary credit ratings to the $200 million principal at-risk variable-rate notes series 1, 2, and 3 issued by Atlas Reinsurance V Ltd.“The sponsor...

Willis Re Appoints 17 Brokers to Drive Specialty Lines Growth in US, UK

Jan 29 2009 // Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of global broker Willis Group Holdings, announced the appointment of 17 professionals “to extend the global growth of the unit’s specialty lines business.”Willis said the...