News in brief

Liability insurance to rise

BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil leak will lead to higher demand from big companies for additional liability insurance, according to Catlin chief executive Stephen Catlin. “The industry has yet to factor in that we have got something in the market today that is life-changing. It is not just energy liability underwriting that will be affected, it’s all liability underwriting,” he commented. Catlin said that some of the biggest corporate clients would now be looking for at least $10bn of liability exposure, almost a tenfold increase on average limits. He added that insurers would need to rethink policy structures to deliver products they can honour.

JLT settles Aon dispute

Jardine Lloyd Thompson has settled a legal dispute with Aon over the defection of several senior aviation executives. The settlement is confidential, but is believed to have cost JLT a large sum. The row started when former Aon deputy chairman Jonathan Palmer-Brown quit to join JLT in July last year. Since then, a number of other brokers within Aon’s aviation team have landed at JLT, including team leaders Bill Smith, Steve Turner and client executive John Cruse. JLT confirmed that the matter has been “resolved by mutual agreement”. Both JLT?and Aon declined to comment further.

Fantasy football results

Congratulations to the first two winners in our Fantasy Football South Africa tournament, sponsored by Event Insurance Services. The winner of the group stages is Stephen Harwood of Henderson Insurance Brokers. His team Australian Rules! scored 72 points and he wins an 8GB iPod Nano. Harwood said he “stayed away from England defenders”. The winner of the last 16 is Darren Pike of Transatlantic Re. He followed a “hit and hope” gameplan as his team Harry’s Hotspurs also scored 72 points. Darren wins a Nintendo Wii.