What’s New: In Brief (November 29, 2007)

The Loyalist Insurance Group Limited reported a Q3 2007 net loss of Cdn$94,143 compared to a net income of Cdn$143,953 for the same period in 2006.The decrease in revenue was due to the non-renewal of a few commercial accounts in the quarter and comparatively from the sale of a customer list that began in Q3 2006, a Loyalist statement says.The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Loyalist Insurance Brokers Limited (LIB), continued to incur legal fees relating to an arbitration over commissions that were due from a third party insurer. LIB received an unsuccessful judgement, the statement continues.

Lloyd’s syndicates need to take a more robust approach to underwriting management, as they will be monitored closely, Rolf Tolle, Lloyd’s franchise performance director, warned.Tolle told Lloyd’s News Centre Digest that emphasis should be placed on premium reduction, as opposed to capacity reduction. “I’ve told those syndicates that still have unaligned capacity that they should keep that capacity as high as possible in case something happens and they need to react very quickly,” he said. While he acknowledged that sometimes premium writing levels should be maintained if the company is building a book of business, for example he said he will retain a watching brief on these companies.”We may have to follow up on their newer areas of activity to see whether their planned assumptions are holding true.”