As updated hurricane predictions continue to point to an active season with a greater chance of U.S. landfall, Fitch Ratings has warned that the season is approaching as many reinsurers have already used up their catastrophe budgets.

While the insurance market for transportation risks is still soft, those in the industry are saying it has begun to stabilize and the tide of new entrants flooding into the market is beginning to slow, according to NIP Group’s first-quarter Transportation Insurance Pricing Survey.

The Texas legislature passed legislation reauthorizing the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), but did not act on separate legislation to reform the state’s last-resort wind insurer, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA).

Paris, France-based AXA says it will sell its Canadian property and casualty and life and savings insurance operations to Toronto-based Intact Financial Corp. for CAD 2.6 billion ($2.7 billion at the current exchange rate).

As the U.S. prepares for what forecasters say will be another above-average hurricane season, Fitch Ratings says first-quarter global catastrophes and the spring tornadoes have already exhausted many reinsurers’ 2011 catastrophe budgets.

The Oklahoma legislature has passed a bill that would preclude uninsured motorists involved in accidents from recovering damages beyond medical costs, property damage and lost income.

It’s still a buyer’s market for insurance on upstream and downstream energy risks, according to a Marsh report. However, uncertainty has developed as reinsurers take heavy losses and natural and man-made catastrophes take their toll.

The property-insurance reform bill recently passed in Florida will help improve insurers’ bottom lines, but large homeowners insurers are unlikely to expand their presence in the state due to continued competition from the insurer of last resort, according to Moody’s.