While a Moody’s report indicates a negative medium-term outlook for title insurers, a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysis suggests 2011 first-quarter results for title insurers may not be as challenging as initially thought.

The door for the private market to play a strong role in insuring against flood would be opened through several provisions in legislation reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program passed by a House panel late Wednesday.

The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s Governing Committee has decided to submit an informational filing, rather than a rate filing, to the state insurance department in part to shift focus away from a hard number and toward the actual cost drivers in the workers’ comp system.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour vetoed a bill that would have created a web-based system to ensure that motorists in the state have required auto insurance coverage.

Company estimates continue to roll in for 2011 first-quarter catastrophe losses, led by London-based Amlin plc’s estimate of up to £275 million ($448.7 million at current exchange rate) in claims for the Japan and New Zealand earthquakes as well as Australian flooding.

The California Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Board’s Actuarial Committee said its analysis continues to show “significant pure premium rate inadequacy,” which could lead to a rate increase request up to 12 percentage points higher than the 27.7 percent request made for Jan. 1.

Standard and Poor’s has revised its outlook on nine Japanese insurers due to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, while Moody’s says current loss estimates by two reinsurers are credit negative for that sector.

As the world watches events surrounding Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant unfold, questions have arisen about preparedness at nuclear facilities here in the U.S.