What’s New: In Brief (June 02, 2008)

Cooper Gay has purchased Heath Lambert’s aviation, FSJ (UK wholesale) and reinsurance divisions as of May 31. Commercial discussions are ongoing with regards to the sale of Heath Lambert’s international wholesale division, Global Business Solutions (GBS), according to a Heath Lambert release. “From our perspective, we have made no secret of our plans to become a UK-focused retail insurance broker and employee benefits consultant, so this sale represents another milestone in achieving that objective,” Adrian Colosso, CEO for Heath Lambert Group, commented in the release. “But we are keen to reiterate we will retain a number of specialty wholesale lines of business, and that our commitment in these areas of our work remains as strong as it has ever been.” Cooper Gay owns Creechurch International Underwriters Ltd. in Toronto, as well as other North American and international assets. “We’re in an acquisition mode right now,” Toby Esser, group CEO for Cooper Gay, told A.M. Best. “We see the industry as a whole struggling to get any real organic growth.”

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has launched Paradex U.S. Hurricane, the first parametric index for assessing insured industry losses from U.S. hurricanes. The index offers industry loss estimates by region and line of business in nine identified hurricane-prone zones throughout Florida, the East Coast and the Gulf Coast. In the event of a hurricane, wind speeds are obtained from a network of hurricane-hardened weather stations and then referenced against RMS insurance industry exposure and vulnerability curves to calculate final index values, the company notes.By combining actual wind speeds at multiple locations with proprietary industry exposure data, Paradex U.S. Hurricane provides timely, objective and reliable insured loss estimates that can be used by the insurance industry and capital markets to structure catastrophe bonds, industry loss warranties and derivative contracts, RMS reports in a release.