E&S/Specialty

Fitch Ratings said the outlook for the U.S. title insurance industry remains negative, following deterioration in market fundamentals and material reductions in capital.

Efforts to create a regional meeting format for captive insurance companies is seeing results with Arizona and Utah agreeing to form the Western Region Captive Insurance Conference (WRCIC) for 2010.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke declared that the recession is "very likely over," but the pace of recovery will be uneven across states and industries, according to a leading insurance industry economist.

Reforming the civil litigation process would reduce health care costs and save the federal government $54 billion over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office reported.

Despite a 67 percent drop in net income in 2008, excess and surplus lines insurers are still strong, according to a rating agency report prepared for NAPSLO.

There's been lot of talk on the acquisition front by excess and surplus lines insurers, but little action to date, even in a year that followed back-to-back declines in organic growth for the segment overall, according to a rating agency analyst.