German reinsurer Munich Re has described the January renewals as "more difficult" than the previous year. In an update released this morning, the company said that "the capital markets have recovered more quickly than expected and, as a result, so have the balance sheets of many insurers and reinsurers". Munich Re said that prices showed "a slight downward trend". Terms and conditions remained "largely unchanged". Torsten Jeworrek, CEO of reinsurance at Munich Re, said that "the renewals involved some tough negotiating. For us, there is no alternative to risk-adequate prices if we want to keep out business sustainable". Munich Re had about €7.9bn ($11bn) of property-casualty treaties up for renewal on January 1, representing about two-thirds of its business. Of these treaties, about €6.8bn were renewed and about €1.2bn terminated. New business amounted to about €700m, resulting in a net fall in volume of about €530m to about €7.4bn. The price level was down about 0.3%. Munich Re said that "this was only possible because Munich Re resolutely adhered to its profit-oriented underwriting policy and was prepared to forgo business if necessary". Property makes up 45% of the portfolio, with casualty 34%, marine 11%, credit 7% and aviation 3%, roughly the same allocation as last year. Munich Re said that "in areas where there is currently little prospect of profitable results, such as sectors of motor business in eastern Europe, China and Germany, but also in credit reinsurance and selected US liability segments, capacity was systematically reduced".

France-based reinsurer Scor has appointed Teresa Pichot senior project manager for Solvency II, commencing at the beginning of March. Julien Carmona has officially started as chief operating officer. Sophie Picard has been appointed head of group internal audit. Investor relations manager Antonio Moretti has been promoted to director. Meanwhile Scor Global Life has created an actuarial and finance department, led by Scor's former deputy chief risk officer Frieder Knüpling.. Sylvain Boueil is promoted to the new position of Scor Global Life chief operating officer.

The US commercial p/c market remained steady in 2009, enabling many buyers either to increase cover or negotiate small drops in prices, according to a study by global broker Marsh. The report said that increased insurer competition would enable buyers in 2010 to obtain price reductions for terrorism and certain catastrophes as well as enhanced cover for pollution and environmental exposures, e-business outages and privacy breaches, employment practices liability and supply-chain disruptions. "If there's a plus for many businesses in the global recession, it's that they can strengthen their insurance programmes and protect themselves against the financial consequences of a wider range of potential exposures", said Brian Elowe, a managing director in Marsh's Global Risk Management division. The report says that Q4 2009 renewals of commercial property cover saw slight increases in rates or reductions of up to 5%. Buyers with large natural catastrophe exposures saw no change in rates or increases of up to 10%. Buyers of workers' comp, motor liability and other casualty lines saw rate reductions of up to 5% at renewal. However, casualty carriers did tighten collateral requirements for certain loss-sensitive and deductible programmes, the report said. Buyers of D&O liability cover saw mixed results at renewal. Many business sectors saw rates decline by 3% to 8%, while real estate investment trusts and banks continued to see "challenging" conditions.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke quashed a staff report that recommended that troubled insurer AIG be allowed to go bankrupt in late 2008, according to Rep Darrell Issa of California. Speaking at yesterday's hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep Issa said: "We now believe that a staff report was done at the Fed to let AIG go bankrupt. Bernanke pulled it". Mr Issa made the accusation a day after Sen Jim Bunning told CNBC news that he had read several documents showing that the Fed staff wanted to allow AIG to follow the same bankruptcy route as investment bank Lehman Brothers. "His staff didn't agree with him", said Sen Bunning, in reference to Mr Bernanke. "I'm talking about an e-mail that he sent his staff after his staff recommended that the Federal Reserve not touch AIG". In anticipation of Wednesday's hearing, Rep Issa wrote to committee chairman Edolphus Towns, saying that he had "received important information from a whistleblower" inside the Fed that confirmed Sen Bunning's CNBC interview. "According to the whistleblower, the documents reveal troubling details about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's personal involvement in the original decision to bail out AIG in September 2008", Mr Issa wrote. New York Fed general counsel Thomas Baxter told the committee that he had no knowledge of the staff report. For his part, Mr Bernanke sent a letter to Mr Issa yesterday, explaining that he "was not directly involved in negotiations" over the November 2008 decision to pay AIG's counterparties in full to unwind its obligations under credit default swaps. Those negotiations, he said, were handled by the New York Fed. Mr Bernanke also wrote that the financial health of Goldman Sachs and other AIG counterparties "was not a factor in the decision regarding the amount paid to the counterparties or whether concessions should be sought from them".