Spain's competition regulator has levied its largest ever fine at €121m against six European insurance companies for price fixing. The Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (National Competition Commission) said the six firms - named as Mapfre, Asefa, Caser, Swiss Re, Munich Re and Scor – breached the country's competition rules over a five year period which coincided with the property boom in Spain. Under Spanish law, builders of residential properties must buy a 10-year insurance policy to protect against structural building defects. The Commission alleges that five of the named insurers formed a cartel in 2002 to set the minimum cost of premiums for this line of business with Caser joining the group in 2006. Asefa has been fined €27.8m, Swiss Re €22.6m, Mapfre €21.6m, Scor €18.6m, Munich Re €15.9m and Caser €14.2m.

XL Capital has sold a 50% stake in its Brazilian joint insurance venture to its partner, local bank Itaú Unibanco. Itaú XL Seguros was established as a joint venture between the two groups in 2006. The sale has been agreed between Itaú subsidiary Itaú Seguros and XL Swiss Holdings although terms of the deal were not disclosed. XL said it was still interested in operating in Brazil and under the agreement Itaú Seguros will insure both XL's clients in Brazil and XL Global Program clients with operations in the country while XL's reinsurance operations in Brazil will provide the reinsurance.

A senior executive at reinsurer Swiss Re has warned that inflation could be a serious threat for reinsurers. Pierre Ozendo, head of Swiss Re's Americas division, said at an Ernst & Young conference in New York that "inflation is a destroyer of reserve adequacy and destroys economic value in a business that measures its economic success over multiple years". He noted that there was "a very real fear of inflation ramping up".

Germany-based insurer Allianz has said that it will not follow local rivals in cutting motor insurance rates, even if this means that it will lose market share. Karl-Walter Gutberlet, head of motor business at Allianz's p/c division, told Bloomberg that "we will not defend market share at all costs". Allianz saw its motor premiums fall 3.9% to EUR3.42bn ($5.12bn) last year, but still booked a combined ratio of 103%. Motor rates in Germany are now almost as low as they were more than 25 years ago, having been pushed steadily downwards by incoming direct sellers. One of Allianz's plans is to move away from the unusual system in Germany whereby all motor policies are renewed at the beginning of the year. It will also seek to sell insurance as a package when people buy a car, on the grounds that they are less price-sensitive when making a large single purchase.