News

Insurance trade organizations said they were successful in fending off proposals to further increase assessments on carriers as part of the proposed New York State budget that state leaders agreed on over the weekend.

J. Randolph Babbitt, a partner in the aviation practice of management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, a Marsh & McLennan subsidiary, has been nominated to head the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Two House Democrats last week introduced legislation that would repeal the antitrust exemption afforded insurers under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, but would retain the authority of states to regulate the industry.

Rather than just steering business to carriers that offer the lowest price or highest compensation, it turns out the closer a carrier's relationship is with its independent agents, the more auto and homeowners insurance producers will send its way.

The Travelers Company Inc. announced that while it will begin more aggressively marketing direct personal lines business over the Internet, the carrier still strongly backs its independent agent channel.

Profits at Lloyd's last year plunged to $2.7B--less than half of the $5.66B reported for 2007--but its CEO was counting his blessings, contending the market's positive bottom line was "a pretty good result" given the state of the economy.