Mergers and acquisitions activity is expected to pick up in 2009 as financial institutions look for ways to divest their non-core insurance businesses in order to fund potential capital shortfalls, a consulting firm report says.

A unit of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has adopted a white paper outlining insurance protection concepts for catastrophes that acknowledges insurer and regulator differences.

A sentence in the implementation guide of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) proposed Model Audit Rule has been altered to clear up responsibility for auditing insurance company subsidiaries.

Insurance trade groups have told the nation's insurance regulators the work of financial rating firms is unsatisfactory, but it's not a job the regulators should attempt.

The nation's insurance regulators have pressed insurance trade organizations for specifics on how use of credit in determining rates affects certain groups of people, and criticized the answers for not being specific enough.

As the current economic environment continues to take its toll on The Hartford, the company's chairman and CEO Ramani Ayer, who will be stepping down at year-end, acknowledged how challenging the last nine months have been.

Shareholders of IPC Holdings Ltd. have voted down a merger bid from Max Capital Group Ltd., and Max has decided to take its offer off the table rather than sweeten the deal.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner needs to speak with state legislators, governors, and attorneys general when seeking information on insurance policy debates, the National Conference of Insurance Legislators advised him.