Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has declined to offer a concessionary three-month period over the forthcoming rise in Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) to 6% from January 4 2011. The rate of IPT is set when an insurer writes up the contract in the accounting system. If a policy that is agreed before next January 4 is not put into the insurer's accounting system until after January 4, it will be charged at the higher rate. PricewaterhouseCoopers insurance tax director Ben Flockton told Insurance Day that liaison between brokers and insurers was important over the next few months if confusion was to be avoided over business written near the end of the year. Some insurers might be collecting at 5% in December, while others would be collecting at 6%, Mr Flockton claimed.

William Gillman and Edward McNenney, the first two Marsh ex-employees to be tried and convicted on bid-rigging charges, have had their convictions quashed, bringing to an end the campaign begun six years ago by the New York Attorney General's office under then AG Eliot Spitzer. Judge James Yates, who found the pair guilty after an 11-month non-jury trial, vacated the judgement on Friday. The vacation motion was based on "multiple forms of exculpatory evidence" that prosecutors failed to produce at the first trial, but which were released at subsequent trials of ex-Marsh employees. Messrs Gillman and McNenney had been sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years' probation in February 2008 on felony monopoly charges and accepting contingent commission kickbacks. Late last year the current AG Andrew Cuomo asked that charges be dropped against two other former Marsh executives.

has closed the acquisition of US crop insurer NAU Group from New York-based private equity firm Lightyear Capital for $565m in cash plus a $30m dividend to NAU stockholders.

There was no sign of the recent softening trend in reinsurance rates halting at the July 1 renewals, according to a report from reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. It said that the strong levels of capital built up during a benign 2009 meant that the Chilean earthquake had only a moderate upward pressure on property cover, with average rates falling overall. In the energy and casualty sectors prices were flat or down, although the long-term impact of Deepwater Horizon could cause a turn in the offshore energy market. Guy Carpenter said that "Marine excess of loss pricing is expected to increase substantially for reinsurance buyers with energy exposures. Increases of greater than 10% were seen for deepwater drilling risks similar to those of the Deepwater Horizon". However, reinsurers' quotes on international placements were unaffected, since accounts were underwritten separately, based on specific losses and exposures. Predictions of an active hurricane season had not had much impact on rates, possibly because several such predictions in recent years have proved to be inaccurate. In retrocession, US wind capacity was nearly full, with terms and conditions remaining roughly as they were earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Willis Re has reported that the Chilean earthquake and Australian storms during Q1 had applied little upward pressure on the global reinsurance market during June 1 and July 1 renewals. The market saw no general move to hike prices even though the two disasters and other minor catastrophes "are probably sufficient to erode the entire 2010 catastrophe excess-of-loss premium base outside the US", Willis Re said. The one exception to Willis Re's findings was the 40% to 70% rate increases seen for Chile-specific renewals.