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A.M. Best Co. has maintained a stable outlook for the personal lines segment in 2008 based on continued operating profitability, strong balance sheets and anticipation of ongoing underwriting discipline.    Although results deteriorated modestly in 2007 relative to prior years, they remained favorable due to price adequacy, underwriting segmentation, modest catastrophe losses and continued risk… Continue reading A.M. Best: Outlook for Personal Lines for ’08 Stable

Staving off the prospect of more bank losses and market declines, MBIA Inc’s “Aaa” rating was reaffirmed after Moody’s Investors Service dropped its immediate threat to cut the world’s bond insurer’s top rating.    While downgrades are still possible, especially if MBIA, the world’s biggest bond insurer, splits its business lines, the latest action eased… Continue reading Moody Confirms MBIA’s Top Rating

The largest U.S. luxury home builder, Toll Brothers Inc., reported a quarterly loss after recording heavy write-downs during its fiscal first quarter.     Earlier today Toll announced it made a first-quarter loss of $96 million, or 61 cents per share, for the quarter ended January 31, compared with a profit of $54.3 million, or… Continue reading Leading Luxury Home Builder Sees Quarterly Losses Amid Write-downs

Prices of existing U.S. single-family homes slumped 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier, the largest decline in the 20-year history of a national home price index released on Tuesday. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 10 metropolitan areas fell 2.3 percent in December versus November, to 200.55, and fell 9.8 percent year-over-year,… Continue reading S&P: Prices of Single-Family Homes Drop

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) President and Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger — along with National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) President, Rhode Island State Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, and National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce Standing Committee Chair, Maryland State Sen. Delores Kelley — today reaffirmed their… Continue reading Regulators and Legislators Reaffirm Commitment to Work Together

In a statement today by RealtTrac Inc. bank seizures of U.S. homes almost doubled in January as property owners failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages, and repossessions rose 90 percent to 45,327 last month from the same period a year ago. Total foreclosure filings, which include default and auction notices as well as… Continue reading Home Foreclosures Up Ninety Percent from Last Year This Time

According to a new study written by Landsea and four other prominent hurricane researchers, the damage caused by hurricanes is doubling every 10 to 15 years — not because of global warming but because more people are crowding into Broward, Miami-Dade and other vulnerable areas.    One particularly ominous conclusion:    If a storm like… Continue reading Cost of Hurricane Damage Doubling Every Decade or So

The world’s largest bond insurer, MBIA Inc., announced that it will stop guaranteeing asset-backed securities for six months and plans to split that business from its municipal bond unit, steps designed to restore restorie stability in troubled credit markets. The decision was announced after Standard & Poor’s earlier on Monday said it would not cut… Continue reading MBIA Moves Towards Restoring Stability in Credit Markets

A person familiar with the Ambac Financial Group Inc matter stated that any deal to rescue the bond insurer would likely be signed early next week rather than today or tomorrow as previously intimated.    According to people familiar with the situation, the deal is enormously enormously complicated and requires the agreement of a large… Continue reading Ambac Rescue Deal in the Works Needs More Time

A U.S. jury on Monday convicted four former executives of the General Re Corp unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc and a former executive of American International on corporate fraud and conspiracy charge in connection with a reinsurance deal that prosecutors said misled AIG investors because it enabled the company to improperly inflate its loss reserves,… Continue reading Jury Convicts Former Gen Re and AIG Execs, Appeal on the Way