The National Association of Insurance Commissioners yesterday held the first session of a new panel designed to create a uniform process for monitoring how insurance companies operate in the marketplace.

Financial services firms seeking to restore confidence in their institutions need to work hard to communicate steps they are taking to address their difficulties, according to a survey of business journalists.

The leadership of the Senate Banking Committee urged overseers of the (TARP) to investigate why AIG paid back investors in troubled AIG mortgage security offerings on a dollar-for-dollar basis even though the securities had not yet defaulted.

Members of Congress reacted to payment of bonuses to employees of American International Group after the firm took U.S. bailout money by disclosing plans to introduce legislation that would claw back the bonuses through punitive taxes.

The head of W.R. Berkley Insurance Co. testifying at a Senate hearing on the future of insurance regulation voiced support for creation of a "independent" federal insurance regulator as the best means of regulating property-casualty insurance.

SAN DIEGO--Insurance department Web sites should gear consumer education efforts toward detailed information about individual insurer practices instead of providing only definitions of coverages, a

The combined ratio was attributed to a 71-point loss ratio and an expense ratio of 30.7. Policyholders' surplus was $64.4 billion, down from the $75.9 billion reported for the same period in 2007,

Towers Perrin expects "that the surplus declines in 2008 will result in increased conservatism in companies' risk appetite. We believe that this, in turn, will lead to a gradual, general firming of