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All 1,300 of Aviva USA’s Des Moines-based employees and contractors are now occupying the company’s new U.S. operations headquarters at 7700 Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines. Capping a summer of highly orchestrated moves, Aviva relocated its staff from three leased locations in downtown Des Moines to the new campus.

Aviva USA broke ground on its new headquarters in April 2008. With a project budget of approximately $150 million, the eight-story building sets on 88 acres of commercial property at the intersection of Jordan Creek Parkway and Mills Civic Parkway.

“Our new home is a world-class facility, allowing us to improve our collaboration which in turn provides us an exceptional experience to serve our customers,” said Chris Littlefield, Aviva USA’s president and chief executive officer. “The campus is highly energy efficient, and designed and constructed according to stringent environmental and sustainability principles.”

Aviva Plc, the parent company of Aviva USA, was the first global insurance company to become carbon neutral. As a responsible corporate citizen, the company took this same progressive stance to protect the environment by reducing the facility’s carbon footprint. Aviva USA is striving to attain gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for this project and should have final determination by mid-November.

Source : Insurance News Net

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XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd (“XLIB”) today announced the launch of its new broad-form Product Contamination policy. To coincide with the launch, XLIB will be hosting a seminar on September 8th to address current regulatory and food safety issues in North America as well as to present the new policy.

XLIB has been recognised historically for offering clients broad and tailored catastrophe coverage solutions. The company, with financial strength ratings of A from both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s, offers clients up to US$50 million in limits excess of a US$10 million minimum attachment point. All product recall policies are backed by many years of XLIB’s specialized experience in handling complex and high profile claims.

XLIB’s new policy has been developed to address the ever evolving regulatory and food safety environment that many North American food and beverage companies face today. The policy goes further than standard Product Contamination policies by offering coverage for government recalls including mandatory or forced recalls.

XLIB Chief Casualty Underwriter Beth Piggott said: “The launch of our new policy and this seminar comes at a critical time. The last few years have seen a significant rise in the frequency of recalls in North America combined with a noticeable increase in the size and scope of the recalls and a corresponding increase in financial severity. These recalls are under growing scrutiny from regulators. The August 18th recall of 380 million eggs in the US is a typical example of this trend. In addition to the pro-active stance taken by the US Food and Drug Administration we also think it likely that the proposed Food Safety Enhancement Act could pass into law in the relatively near future. This would give regulators authority to mandate recalls and will put food and beverage companies into unchartered waters in terms of the food safety environment in which they are operating. XLIB has been writing Product Contamination business for over ten years and we have used this experience to re-engineer our policy to provide broad and contemporary cover to respond to today’s challenging regulatory environment and the growing capacity needs of companies seeking higher limits.”

Highlights of the 2010 XL Product Recall Form includes:

  • Accidental Contamination
  • Malicious Contamination
  • Product Extortion
  • Forced and/or Government Recall
  • Adverse Publicity
  • Priority 24/7 crisis management through “Response XL”

Patrick Tannock, XLIB President, said: “XLIB has a proven track record of responding to our clients needs with new and enhanced products. When combined with our claims handling expertise we are confident that our new Product Contamination policy will provide solutions and certainty for our clients in an increasingly dynamic landscape.”

Speakers at the seminar include Joseph Bermudez, Partner and Head of Crisis Management at the law firm of Nelson, Levine de Luca & Horst; Simon Oddy, Partner at RGL Forensics; and John Turner, VP at the global claims services company McLarens Young International. These industry experts will provide insight into the latest developments in the product recall environment and give practical analysis of a recall claim and investigation.

The seminar will also address the importance of crisis management for companies facing a product recall situation and how XL Insurance’s unique service, Response XL, works with clients to address the current food safety challenges. XL Insurance underwriters will present an overview of the new Product Contamination policy.

The seminar will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at XLIB’s offices at One Bermudiana Road, Hamilton, Bermuda. The seminar is open to brokers and their clients. Policy highlights are summaries only. Please contact your Bermuda-based broker for a copy of the 2010 XLIB Product Contamination Policy Form.

Source : XL Press Release

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Industrial Insurance Company HDI-Gerling has announced the creation of a new branch in Ireland, based in Dublin. The formation of the branch aims to build HDI-Gerling’s brand in Ireland as a strong leading market. It will deliver technical knowhow and a service proposition aligned directly to the needs of its brokers and clients.

HDI-Gerling has for many years written business in Ireland from its UK operation which will continue in its responsibility for Ireland and provide claims, risk engineering and support services. In Ireland HDI-G will focus on industrial and commercial business and underwrite risks in the property, liability and engineering classes.

Paul Moraghan has joined HDI-Gerling as general manager to head the branch and Frank Hynes has also been appointed to manage the liability portfolio. Both bring with them a wealth of experience, an in-depth understanding of the Irish insurance market and strong broker support.

Board member Jens Wohlthat, responsible for international business, said: “The decision to enter Ireland at this time forms part of HDI-Gerling’s long term strategy to become a truly global business.  With Paul’s local leadership and supported by the UK operation, Ireland will add a further dimension to our business.”

Richard Taylor, UK and Ireland managing director added: “This represents yet another step in our long term plans to deliver our products locally with highly respected technical and professional decision makers”.

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The reinsurance sector is vulnerable to a significant insured loss from the Atlantic storm season as their reserve capital has been used to offset low premiums, Fitch Ratings reported, as Hurricane Earl threatens to hit land. As Earl lingers as a category 3 storm off the east coast of the United States, Fitch Ratings said insured losses from catastrophes in the first half, which were the highest on record, have already started to erode reinsurer’s catastrophe budgets for the year.

The reinsurance sector needs a modest Atlantic hurricane season in order to prevent revisions to earnings guidance having to be made, Fitch said in its global reinsurance review. Overall pricing had not been hit despite catastrophe losses from such events as the Chilean earthquake and European windstorm Xynthia in February and the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but some businesses and regions have been affected, Fitch said.

Property catastrophe rates in Chile increased by 40 to 70 percent in response to earthquake losses in February, while for the sector as a whole, rate reductions were an average 5 to 10 percent.

“Abundant capacity, even overcapacity, remains for many lines of business and reinsurers’ strong capital positions, continue to provide a buffer that may allow rates to be cut further before economic profitability targets are compromised,” said Fitch.

In addition to powerful Earl, the U.S. National Hurricane Center is monitoring two other tropical systems in the Atlantic. Hurricane Earl could make landfall somewhere between North Carolina and New England, and this will dictate whether it is a market changing event or not, said Chris Waterman, managing director in Fitch’s Insurance rating group.

“I would expect a $30 to 40 billion loss (from a catastrophe) to have a material impact on the premium rating environment,” he said. Premium ratings could also be affected by the new insurer solvency rules being introduced in 2013, which are expected to boost demand for reinsurance added Fitch.

“Reinsurance capacity is an effective tool for managing capacity,” said Waterman, adding that capital intensive business lines, such as credit insurance and non-proportional reinsurance lines could see premium rates rise. As the reinsurance industry gears up for the reinsurance gathering in Monte Carlo next week, Fitch reaffirmed its stable outlook on the industry.

Waterman said it was unlikely the industry would be upgraded to a positive outlook, despite strong underwriting earnings and the sector’s resilience though the course of the financial crisis. He also said: “Should trends improve, a move to positive rating outlook is unlikely due to the ease with which capital can enter or leave the sector,” .

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Fitch Ratings says today that it expects competition to intensify in the global reinsurance industry, leading to pressure on earnings, as reinsurance has proved to be one of the most resilient of all insurance sectors through the financial crisis. Fitch’s rating Outlook for the global reinsurance industry remains Stable.

The Stable Outlook is based on Fitch’s view that the key challenges facing reinsurers are unlikely to impede the stability of earnings and current strong levels of capitalisation for the majority of reinsurers over the next 12-24 months, subject to normal catastrophe experience.

“The relative attractiveness of the reinsurance operating environment has resulted in an intensification of competitive conditions, and prospects for continued strong earnings have diminished for many global reinsurers,” says Chris Waterman, Managing Director in Fitch Ratings’ Insurance group in London. “Fitch considers that the next 12-24 months will prove to be a period of notable differentiation between companies.”

Pressures are beginning to mount as premium rates edge lower. There is reduced demand for reinsurance capacity among cedants, and reinsurers face continuing challenges in generating sustainable levels of investment income in the current low interest rate environment.

Reinsurers are also contending with a variety of complex regulatory issues, including the introduction of Solvency II, which require adaptation to a modified competitive landscape. Fitch believes that these challenges, although significant, are manageable for most reinsurers and remain within normal cyclical expectations.

Fitch believes that many of the traditional drivers of reinsurers’ historical profitability, such as investment income and the release of prior-year reserves are unlikely to support earnings over the near-term. As a result, the agency views underwriting discipline and proactive cycle management as critical to reinsurers’ future profitability.

The ability of reinsurers to successfully execute on cycle management strategies will vary significantly across the sector. Fitch considers that the next 12- to 24 months will prove to be a period of notable differentiation between companies. Those that are successful will be defined by their ability to manage their underwriting exposures by exiting or cutting back on lines of business that are no longer technically profitable.

Source : Fitch Press Release

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Craig Preston appointed area director for Aon Corporate’s Reading and Southampton offices

John Harris appointed Global CCO of Aon’s Crisis Management (ACM) business

Aon Risk Solutions, the world’s leading global risk and insurance firm has appointed Craig Preston, currently chief commercial officer (CCO) of Aon’s Crisis Management business, as area director responsible for Aon Corporate’s Reading and Southampton offices. John Harris, currently executive director with regional responsibilities for ACM UK and Ireland, will be taking over as Global CCO of Crisis Management. Both appointments take effect from 1 September, 2010.

Craig joined Aon’s Crisis Management team in 2007 as head of crisis consulting and has been CCO since January of this year. Before joining Aon, he worked as a consultant specialising in leadership and team development. Prior to this, Craig worked for Coca-Cola Enterprises as a senior manager in sales and operational appointments. This followed an 18 year career as a British Army Officer, having graduated from The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

John has 24 years of risk management and insurance experience, 17 of which has been with Aon in various senior sales and leadership roles. As CCO he will be responsible for driving growth and ensuring the further consolidation of Aon’s leading position in the terrorism, kidnap and ransom, political risk, product recall and crisis consulting arenas across the globe.

Jim Herbert, managing director of Aon Corporate commented: “I am delighted that Craig is joining us, and that we have been able to fill this key position from within Aon’s existing talent. Craig’s diverse experience in developing and leading high performing teams will be invaluable as we focus on continuing to delight our clients and grow the business.”

Paul Bassett, global CEO of Aon’s Crisis Management division comments: “Having worked right across Aon over a long period of time, and with the crisis management team since July 2009, John brings a wealth of experience and understanding of the way our clients like to work, and the market we operate in. It is this experience I know he will utlilise to develop even stronger relationships across our firm, driving growth in sales, adding to the success of Aon’s Crisis Management team.”

Source : AON Press Release

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Taiwanese authorities on Tuesday rejected a Hong Kong consortium’s bid to buy ailing US insurance giant American International Group’s Taiwan unit Nan Shan Life.

The application by Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings and Primus Financial Holdings “has failed to get the approval of the responsible authorities,” the Investment Commission said in a statement.

Rejection of the bid came as a blow to AIG, once the world’s largest insurer, which has been selling assets to pay back US government loans since its rescue from collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.

“AIG is disappointed by the Investment Commission’s decision concerning the sale of Nan Shan…. AIG is conferring with the Primus Nan Shan consortium as to appealing this decision,” the US insurer said in a statement.

The Hong Kong bidder is allowed to file an appeal within 30 days but analysts were not optimistic on the prospects for the deal.

“Even if China Strategic Holdings and Primus Financial Holdings appeal, the odds of success are slim,” said Mars Hsu of Grand Cathay Securities.

Officials with the Financial Supervisory Commission — the regulators that oversee Taiwan’s insurance industry — said the Hong Kong consortium was short of experience to manage an insurer.

They also charged that the consortium had failed to provide a long-term management commitment, allegations flatly rejected by AIG.

“AIG believes that its additional accommodations of regulatory requests, including a seven-year lockup mechanism agreed to by the Primus Nan Shan consortium and a 325 million US dollar escrow agreement agreed to by AIG, demonstrate clear support for … incontrovertible commitment to the long-term health and prosperity of Nan Shan.”

The Hong Kong consortium agreed to acquire Nan Shan Life from AIG for 2.15 billion US dollars in October last year, but the deal has been in limbo since November when China Strategic announced a plan to sell a 30 percent stake in Nan Shan to Taipei-based Chinatrust Financial Holding Co.

Rumors also surfaced late last year that Chinese capital was involved in the deal — claims that the consortium has repeatedly denied.

Fan Liang-tung, executive secretary of the Investment Commission, said:

“The decision has nothing to do with concerns that some shareholders of the consortium have Chinese capital.”

Taiwan has partially lifted a decade-old ban on Chinese investment amid improving ties after President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008 on a China-friendly platform.

However, the government still imposes various restrictions in key sectors such as finance, flat-panel technology and telecommunications as it seeks to keep control of its economy.

Nan Shan Life was established in 1963, and now has a network of 24 branches and 450 agency offices, employing a staff of 4,000 and more than 34,000 agents. As of September 2009, it had four million customers.

Taipei, Aug 31, 2010 (AFP)

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The company is set to close 14 of its 27 offices by 2013. The places earmarked for closure include the Direct Line call centre in Glasgow, two sites in Birmingham, two in Croydon and two in Bristol.

Other closures will be seen in Farnham, Ipswich, Manchester, Peterborough, Romford and Cardiff, although these will happen gradually over the course of around three years, according to the company.

RBSI announced in May that 2,000 jobs would go at its insurance division, which it was ordered to sell by the European Commission by 2013.

More than 600 jobs are set to go in Glasgow and all cuts are part of the previously announced 2,000 job losses.

A statement from the bank said: “We announced in May that we were looking to consolidate our UK office network as part of our plans to achieve efficiencies across our Insurance business as we prepare it for sale as mandated by the EU.  “However we do not comment on speculation and have a commitment to our staff that we will always tell them first if we are announcing any changes that affect them.”

Source : Insurance Age | 26 Aug 2010

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YouTube has become an arena for encouraging smoking among young people, hosting videos that link major cigarette brands with celebrities, music, sporting success and cartoons, according to medical research published on Thursday.

Lacking restrictions on tobacco ads that apply to TV, radio, newspapers and event sponsorship, the popular Internet site has become an open range for the Marlboro Man and other marques, it said.

Public health researchers at the University of Otago in Wellington, New Zealand, analysed a sample of English-language video clips that contained references to five cigarette brands: Marlboro; L&M; Benson and Hedges; Winston; and Mild Seven. They selected 163 clips on the basis of “most popular” ranking and then analysed them, seeing whether smoking or the brand were seen positively or negatively, and if so, how.

Many of the videos included old TV advertising and posters, which are outlawed in many countries. There were also scenes from films with popular actors and a cigarette whose brand was visible, extracts of tobacco-sponsored sporting events, and TV footage from the 1950s and 1960s, including The Flintstones, The Beverly Hillbillies and even the Beatles.

Seventy-one percent of the clips were classified as pro-tobacco and four percent as anti-tobacco, while the remaining 25 percent did not fall into either category.

Videos associated with Marlboro were the most heavily viewed, notching up an average of almost 104,000 views each. One attracted two million views alone.

The paper, published in a specialised, peer-reviewed British journal, Tobacco Control, does not directly accuse the tobacco giants of posting the videos, an act that can be done by anyone, and anonymously. But it says 20 of the analysed videos “appeared to be very professionally made” and tobacco companies had not cracked down on the clips for abuse of copyight.

“This picture is consistent with indirect marketing activity by the tobacco companies or their proxies,” says the study. “Tobacco companies stand to benefit greatly from the marketing potential of Web 2.0, without themselves being at significant risk of being implicated in violating any laws or advertising codes.”

It warns that pro-tobacco clips are likely to be even more widespread than this preliminary survey found. Only a handful of brands were analysed in this sweep of YouTube and the method used to determine a pro-tobacco image was conservative, it said.

Researcher Lucy Elkin said that YouTube could help by adding smoking to its list of categories whereby a video that is “flagged” by the public for dangerous or inappropriate content could be removed.

As for tobacco companies, “they are either not aware (of the pro-smoking videos) or they don’t mind,” she told AFP. “They can’t control what is put on by other people, but for the ones that are clearly their property, their advertisements, they can play a role in taking them off by complaining to YouTube for breach of copyright.”

Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro and L&M, said it “does not market or promote tobacco products on YouTube, nor do we condone or in any way authorize the posting of materials related to our brands.” “We have previously asked YouTube to remove content related to our brands and will be contacting YouTube again following this study,” its director of external communications, Anne Edwards, told AFP from Geneva.

“We do not advertise on the Internet, such as through YouTube, because it is freely accessible by minors,” Yuka Kin, a spokeswoman for Japan Tobacco, said in Tokyo.

British American Tobacco said its products did not appear to be targeted in the study, with the possible exception of Benson and Hedges, which is sold under licence to mainly non-English countries. “It is absolutely not our policy to use social networking sites such as Facebook or YouTube to promote our tobacco product brands,” its spokeswoman, Catherine Armstrong, said in an email from London.

The US giant R.J. Reynolds and YouTube did not respond immediately to solicitations for a reaction.

Paris, Aug 26, 2010 (AFP)

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Italy’s insurance giant Generali wants to expand in Asia, notably in India and Vietnam, its president said, financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported on Thursday.

“We’re looking at India and in the near future our development in that area will reach Vietnam as well,” Cesare Geronzi said after a conference on Wednesday. Geronzi however said Generali does “not have any concrete offers” on the table for acquisitions in Asia and that it would buy “only what is needed.”

Generali, the largest foreign insurer in China, has a strong presence in Asia with businesses in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan and Hong-Kong.

Last year, the company obtained a licence to start doing business in Vietnam but it is still waiting for an authorisation to begin operations there.

Generali’s chief executive Sergio Balbinot on Wednesday also said in the group was interested in expanding in Asia. “We are looking at all of the opportunities where we are already present, but we don’t want to disperse ourselves in every country,” Balbinot told French business daily La Tribune.

Rumors that Generali could be interested in certain assets of AIG’s Asian unit AIA circulated in June after British insurer Prudential abandoned its ambitious takeover plan of the unit.

Last year, Generali had already tried to buy AIA’s assets in the Philippines.

Rome, Aug 26, 2010 (AFP)

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Aon Corporation announced it is working with markets to explore the various forms of alternative remuneration available to Aon.

“As we stated during testimony delivered in July 2008 to the New York State Insurance Department and Office of the Attorney General, Aon is committed to industry-leading transparency and delivering the highest value for price in the industry on behalf of our clients,” said Steve McGill, chairman and chief executive officer of Aon Risk Solutions. “We have conducted a great deal of research around broker compensation across the globe with a focus on serving the needs of our clients and competing on a level playing field in the marketplace.

“As a result, we have decided to accept various forms of compensation available, which may include supplemental and/or contingent commissions in the geographies and client segments globally where appropriate and legally permissible,” continued McGill.

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Ratings agency Fitch has affirmed Lloyd’s of London’s Insurer Financial Strength rating at A+.

In addition, the Society of Lloyd’s long term issuer default rating and Lloyd’s Reinsurance Company (China) were affirmed at A and A+ respectively. All three have stable outlooks.

According to Fitch, the affirmation “reflects Lloyd’s strong operating performance during 2009, with reported results ahead of Fitch’s expectations.”

Fitch claimed that Lloyd’s 2009 performance was supported by a series of beneficial factors that are unlikely to be repeated in 2010, including a benign US windstorm season, a recovery in investment results, favourable foreign exchange movements in respect of gross written premium growth and improved pricing conditions.

Mr Street, an associate director in Fitch’s insurance group,said: “A series of large losses that occurred in the first quarter of 2010 have worsened underwriting performance for both primary and reinsurance participants, including Lloyd’s.” He added: “When considered against other factors, including Fitch’s expectation of reduced investment returns and a pricing environment that is less favourable than that experienced during 2009, the agency anticipates that Lloyd’s will report a reduced level of earnings for 2010.”

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Aon Corporation announced yesterady that the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share on its outstanding common stock.

The dividend is payable on August 16, 2010 to stockholders of record on August 2, 2010.

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Swiss insurance group Baloise said Tuesday it has acquired Belgian firm Avero for 75 million euros (102.4 million dollars), a move that would strengthen its market position in Belgium.

“With the acquisition of Avero, Baloise will increase the market share of its Belgian non-life business to around five percent, making it the sixth largest non-life business in Belgium,” said the Basel-based company.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by year-end.

Following the deal, the brand name Avero would be gradually removed from the Belgian market, said Baloise. Avero is active in the non-life segment and has a focus on the property and transport insurance markets.

In 2009, the company with 177 employees recorded a premium volume of 124 million euros.

Zurich, July 20, 2010 (AFP)

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    American International Assurance (AIA), the Asian unit of US insurance giant AIG, is trawling for investors so it can split from its troubled parent as soon as possible, a report said Tuesday.

    Mark Tucker, the former head of British insurer Prudential who was named Monday as AIA’s new chief executive, has sought assurances that AIA can “pursue independence immediately,” the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

    Reports have said AIA plans to list more than half its equity in Hong Kong by October or November with the goal of raising as much as 23 billion US dollars.

    Tucker — who replaces AIA’s current chief executive Mark Wilson –was in talks with regulators and potential investors from Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China, the paper said. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek has long coveted the Asian insurer, while Tucker has “good links” with Chinese insurance giant Ping An, the paper said.

    An independent AIA could be valued at more than 34 billion US dollars and would be the only listed pan-Asian insurer.

    At least four consortia made up of private Chinese investors have approached AIG about acquiring AIA, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported last week.

    Tucker’s hiring follows the collapse last month of Prudential’s 35.5-billion-dollar (27.5-billion-euro) takeover bid for AIA, which Wilson had opposed. The failure of the mega-deal forced AIG, which is seeking to repay billions of dollars in US government bailouts, to look again at a Hong Kong listing of AIA to raise fresh funds.

    AIG said it would “proceed as soon as practicable” with the listing plan. “After reviewing various options to monetize AIA’s substantial value, we have concluded that an IPO is our best option,” AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche said in a statement Monday.

    Hong Kong, July 20, 2010 (AFP)

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    Anti-HIV drugs reached 1.2 million more people last year, the UN announced Monday at the world AIDS forum, as former US president Bill Clinton defended Barack Obama’s funding to fight the disease.

    The increase meant that 5.2 million people had access to drugs to repress HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the UN’s World Health Organisation said as thousands of delegates met at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna. “This is the largest increase in people accessing treatment in a single year. It is an extremely encouraging development,” WHO’s assistant director general Hiroki Nakatani said.

    Since 2003 the number of people on anti-HIV drugs has risen 12-fold, the UN health agency said. But experts say that despite the surge, only roughly half of the world’s poor, badly infected people have access to the drugs.

    The six-day conference of scientists, policymakers and grassroots workers opened Sunday in Vienna to rowdy protests from activists accusing President Obama of reneging on a campaign pledge to spend some 50 billion dollars on AIDS by 2013. Some of several hundred protestors chanted “Obama lies — people die,” as new data pointed to a slump in AIDS funding.

    In a keynote speech on Monday, Clinton defended Obama, laying the blame for financial belt-tightening at the door of the US Congress. “You have two options here, you can demonstrate and call the president names or we can go get some more votes in Congress to get some more money,” Clinton said. “There is no way the White House will veto an increase in funding for AIDS.”

    At Sunday’s opening ceremonies, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned in a video message that the “significant progress” in the 29-year war on AIDS could be reversed if countries retreated in their funding efforts.

    Veteran campaigners also demanded political leaders fund AIDS with the same speed and generosity as they refloated the banking sector in 2008 and shored up the Greek economy earlier this year.

    Obama has submitted a 2011 fiscal year request of 5.7 billion dollars for spending on AIDS, almost unchanged from last year and just 236 million dollars more than 2009, the last fiscal year of the George W. Bush administration, according to analysis by the US anti-AIDS organisation amfAR. “I completely understand why the advocates for greater AIDS funding have loudly protested. But I do not think it is either fair or accurate to say the president has gone back on his promises as if this was a callous walking away,” Clinton said.

    “When he signed that petition saying he would support greater AIDS funding, it was before the American economy led the world into the worst financial crisis since the depression. “Since then, he has tried to keep his commitments… even his worst critics admit that he tries to keep his commitments, that’s why they don’t like him,” he said.

    Figures released on Sunday showed that funding by rich countries slipped in 2009 as the economic recession bit.

    The widening gap threatens the goal of providing universal access to AIDS drugs and may even disrupt supplies to those already on the lifeline therapy, say some experts.

    From 2002 to 2008 donations from rich economies for poor countries rose from 1.2 billion to 7.7 billion, but fell back last year to 7.6 billion, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS.

    That left a funding shortfall last year of more than seven billion dollars.

    For 2010, 25 billion dollars has to be mustered for fighting AIDS in poorer countries, according to a previous UNAIDS estimate. So far, there is a funding shortfall of 11.3 billion.

    At least 25 million people have died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) since the disease first came to light in 1981. At the end of 2008, more than 33 million people had HIV, and 2.7 million people that year became infected, according to UNAIDS last year.

    Vienna, July 19, 2010 (AFP)

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    US insurer AIG has confirmed it is replacing the head of its Asian unit AIA before listing the company in Hong Kong with a view to raising about 23 billion US dollars.

    Mark Tucker, a former head of British insurer Prudential, is to take over from Mark Wilson, who has been head of AIA since 2006, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing the company.

    The move follows the collapse last month of Prudential’s 35.5-billion-dollar (27.5-billion-euro) monster takeover bid for AIA, which Wilson had opposed.

    The failure of the mega-deal forced AIG, which is seeking to repay billions of dollars in government bailouts that it was given during the economic crisis, to look again at a Hong Kong listing of AIA to raise fresh funds.

    AIG and AIA did not immediately return phone calls Monday. “After reviewing various options to monetize AIA’s substantial value, we have concluded that an IPO is our best option,” AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche was quoted as saying.

    “Mark Tucker has the public company experience, track record, relationships, judgment, and leadership qualities that will help us accomplish our ambitious goals of not just taking a company of AIA’s size and scope public, but building on this great platform for the long term to create Asia’s pre-eminent, publicly traded insurance company.”

    In another management shake-up at the US insurance giant, AIG last week named director Robert Miller as its new chairman, following the resignation of Harvey Golub, who had clashed with Benmosche.

    AIG aims to raise as much as 23 billion US dollars from share sales of AIA to strategic investors and to the public at a Hong Kong offering by late October or early November, Dow Jones said, citing people familiar with the situation.

    The cash will go to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which holds a stake in AIA and has been AIG’s top creditor since a federal bailout of the insurance giant in 2008.

    Hong Kong, July 19, 2010 (AFP)

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    Broker-only insurer MMA has announced the appointment of Peter Knowles to the new position of Head of UK Development.

    The role, which has been created as part of the company’s plan for commercial lines development, will report to chief executive Garry Fearn. As Head of UK Development, Peter is responsible for developing broker relations, overseeing the Business Development team.

    Garry Fearn commented: “Peter is a prominent figure in the insurance market and has had a successful 22 year career in the industry. He brings with him a wealth of relevant experience to this new position. “The Head of UK Development position is fundamental to MMA’s continued growth and development and is a key factor in our commercial lines development plans.”

    Mr Knowles, who was previously Market Director for General Insurance at the Chartered Insurance Institute, has a wide ranging career including Strategy and Marketing Director for Polaris, where he was responsible for recruiting several new insurance companies to imarket. Prior to Polaris, Peter was at Norwich Union, which he joined in 1986 and held various positions with including National Retail Accounts Manager.

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    Two years after an economic crisis laid bare the shaky foundations of the US financial system, questions remain as to whether the latest measures to prevent another collapse will work.

    To some, the 2,300-page reform package passed by Congress Thursday is the most wide-ranging Wall Street reform since the 1930s. Others view it as a meddling mishmash of rules that fail to address the problem.

    The White House — zeroing in on a major political victory — claimed the bill would assign crisis-era notions of too-big-to-fail banks or toxic assets to the dustbin of history.

    Republicans vowed to repeal the measures if re-elected to office, seeing them as unfairly burdening innocent firms and curbing growth.

    Unsurprisingly, experts see some gray shading between the red and blue of Washington politics. “It’s a mixed bag” said Phillip Swagel, a former Treasury Department economist, now a professor at Georgetown University. “There are some things that are useful, there are some things that are nothing, and some things that could be downright harmful.”

    With the meltdown blamed on everything from risky trading to some regulators favoring pornography over supervision, allegations that the reforms miss the mark are common. “It does not attack the fundamental problems that got us into the disaster of 2008,” said Thomas Ferguson, a politics professor at the University of Massachusetts.

    Ferguson criticized the measures as stopping well short of proscribing size limits on companies, or spiting larger banks. “It just ducks the too-big-to-fail problem,” he said.

    But supporters say giving the government powers to monitor and even wind-down firms that pose a “systemic risk” to the financial system will go a long way to preventing a repeat of the bailouts needed to save AIG, or the disorderly collapse of Lehman Brothers.

    Others say the legislation gives politicians overbearing powers to intervene in the market.

    One of them, Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association, warned firms now faced “years of uncertainty.”

    Still, there is little doubt that much of the text remains unwritten. “Even after the president signs the Wall Street reform bill, financial reform will be far from complete,” said Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of the regulators who will now be asked to fill in the blanks. “We’ll have a significant number of rules to write and implement to regulate the financial system,” he said. “Just at the CFTC, we have organized around 30 areas where we believe rules will be necessary.”

    Many of these rules will cover the trade in complex derivatives like the mortgage-backed assets that were blamed for spurring the collapse. The measures could include “central clearing, higher capital and margin requirements, better transparency, and, possibly, exchange-based trading,” said analysts at Moody’s, a ratings agency.

    Advocates say exchange-based trading would make these sometimes opaque instruments more transparent and so less risky for investors, but Moody’s warned the risk may simply be shifted to central counterparties.

    But perhaps the biggest “blank” in the regulation is the role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The new body will sit inside the Federal Reserve, but its boss will have great leeway to operate beyond the control of the Fed or Congress. “One could imagine a person in charge of the agency being someone who really likes being in front of the TV camera… chasing stories and basically having a negative effect on the availability of credit,” said Swagel. “All the power of this agency is vested in one person so it really depends on who that person is and how they interpret their mission.”

    The same could be said for much of the reform. As a work in progress, it will depend on who finishes writing the rules and who implements them.

    Washington, 15 july 2010 (AFP)

    0 0

    Three waterborne diseases account for hospitalizations that cost the US health care system around 539 million dollars a year, the Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday.

    The CDC said relatively small expenditures to improve water systems and keep swimming pools clean could dramatically reduce the incidence of the three diseases: Legionnaire’s disease, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis.

    The average cost of treating one patient hospitalized with Legionnaire’s disease was more than 34,000 dollars, the CDC said.

    Hospitalization for an individual with cryptosporidiosis costs more than 21,000 dollars per case, while a case of giardiasis cost around 9,000 dollars.

    The costs associated with treating each illness were gleaned from a database of health care claims submitted between 2004 and 2007. “When people think about these diseases, they usually think of a simple case of diarrhea, which is a nuisance, but quickly goes away,” said Michael Beach of the CDC, an author of the study. “However, these infections can cause severe illness that often results in hospital stays of more than a week, which can quickly drive up health care costs.”

    The illnesses produce symptoms ranging from rashes and eye and ear infections to serious respiratory and neurological problems that can prove fatal. “Modest investments in preventing the diseases could lead to reduced disease and significant health care cost savings,” the study said.

    Beach recommended “public education campaigns, appropriate maintenance of building water systems, and regular inspection of pools and other recreational water facilities.”

    In a May news release, the CDC warned that a 2008 study conducted in 13 US states forced the closure of one in eight public pools for public health and safety code violations.

    Of the 112,000 pools inspected, some 12.1 percent, or 13,500 facilities, were found to be in serious violation of health and safety codes and were immediately closed down.

    Washington, July 14, 2010 (AFP)

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