insurance

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Global Insurance Fraud Floods N. Korea with Cash

 Global Insurance Fraud 
 Floods N. Korea with Cash 
INVESTIGATION

Global Insurance Fraud Floods N. Korea with Cash

North Korean leader profits personally from fires, disasters

(Newser) - North Korea has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from global insurance giants on often suspicious claims of fires, floods, and other disasters, according to a Washington Post investigation. While insurers have kept mum about their losses, US officials and Korean defectors describe a sophisticated fraud that has provided Kim...

AIG Dodges Insurance Claims from Hudson Flight

Insurer accused of using goodwill towards flight crew to dodge paying up

(Newser) - Passengers from US Airways Flight 1549 are having a tough time getting its insurer, AIG, to cough up for claims, the New York Times reports. Aviation liability insurance requires a finding of negligence. But Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and his crew were universally acknowledged to have performed amazingly well in saving...

Banks Use Worker Life Insurance to Pay Exec Bonuses

Dead employees keep on giving

(Newser) - Former employees of the big banks often end up handing the bosses a final reward when the workers die, the Wall Street Journal reports. The banks have taken out life insurance policies on hundreds of thousands of workers, and the tax-free death benefits are used to finance executive compensation and...

Piracy Jacks Up Insurance, Fuel Costs

Entering high-risk areas or navigating around South Africa both add millions

(Newser) - Piracy in the Gulf of Aden is driving up shipping costs as companies are forced to choose between paying higher insurance or taking longer routes, the AP reports. Premiums have reportedly risen at least tenfold for travel near the Somali coast, and avoiding the Gulf of Aden by navigating around...

Somalia Piracy Hampers Food Aid: UN

Danger of hijacking has raised costs dramatically, WFP official says

(Newser) - Piracy off the coast of Somalia is making relief organizations' work even more difficult, Reuters reports. The UN’s World Food Program  today decried both the hijacking of ships bearing aid supplies—the Maersk Alabama, for example, had 232 WFP containers on board when it was seized this week—and...

More Strapped Drivers Kick Insurance to Curb

(Newser) - As the economy sours, a stunning number of drivers are cutting back or dropping their insurance, MSNBC reports—and that has regulators and safety activists worried. “We may be looking at record numbers of uninsured motorists across the nation,” said the president of the Northwest Insurance Council. An...

US Extends Bailout to Life Insurers

Treasury throwing a lifeline to a third industry

(Newser) - The Treasury Department has decided to give struggling life insurance companies access to federal bailout funds, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The industry—which had earlier seemed largely immune to the credit crisis—has been hit hard by stock market and real estate declines, leaving some firms on the...

AIG Bailout Has Failed: Greenberg

Government should focus on reducing stake, restructuring firm, former CEO says

(Newser) - AIG’s former CEO told Congress today the bailout of the insurance firm has “failed” and that the government should restructure the company, the Wall Street Journal reports. At a House committee hearing, Hank Greenberg said he blamed his successors for the firm’s implosion: "I think they...

Tongues to Chest Hair, Stars Insure Prized Parts

Dolly Parton's chest worth $11K per inch

(Newser) - Celebrities are known for insuring their most famous body parts, but now other types are getting into the practice. This week, a coffee taster’s tongue was insured for $13.8 million, making it the most valuable in the world. To mark the occasion, the Mirror lists some of the...

Eli Broad: AIG Can't Recover
 Eli Broad: AIG Can't Recover 

Eli Broad: AIG Can't Recover

LA billionaire says he has "no hope" for insurer

(Newser) - Eli Broad, a former director and shareholder of AIG, said yesterday that "it is too late" for the insurance giant to make any recovery. The Los Angeles billionaire told Reuters that the government's initial bailout of AIG came "on the harshest of terms," and that a...

'Viking Bankers' Pillaged Iceland
 'Viking Bankers' 
 Pillaged Iceland 

glossies

'Viking Bankers' Pillaged Iceland

How Iceland went from fishing to finance to ruin

(Newser) - The bankers who ruined Iceland’s economy possessed the mentality of its fishermen—daring, aggressive, and devoted to the “lucky catch," Michael Lewis writes in Vanity Fair. It's no surprise—after all, they were the sons of fishermen whose massive profits helped modernize Iceland in the 1970s. But...

AIG Negotiating Yet Another Bailout

3rd rescue could see government acquire parts of insurer

(Newser) - AIG is seeking yet another bailout from the federal government, the Financial Times reports, as the troubled insurer prepares to post a quarterly loss the Wall Street Journal expects to exceed $60 billion. The new package would see the government swap its previous $60 billion loan for equity and acquire...

Buffett Loans Billions to Swiss Re
Buffett Loans Billions to
Swiss Re

Buffett Loans Billions to Swiss Re

Insurance giant turns to Omaha after heavy annual loss

(Newser) - Insurance giant Swiss Re has reported an annual loss of $860 million and will turn to Warren Buffett to retain its investment-grade rating, the Financial Times reports. The company will raise $2.58 billion, of which more than half will come from Berkshire Hathaway—leaving Buffett with more than 20%...

Denied Rate Hike, State Farm to Axe Fla. Home Insurance

Company holds 1.2M policies in state hit hard, and often, by nature

(Newser) - Citing a “weakened financial position,” State Farm’s Florida operation is planning to completely exit the home insurance business there within 2 years, the Miami Herald reports. Such a move would need regulatory approval, and require a 180-day heads-up to affected homeowners. The move comes after the insurer,...

Insurer Leads 259-Point Surge
 Insurer Leads 259-Point Surge 
MARKETS

Insurer Leads 259-Point Surge

Stocks manage to stay afloat despite terrible jobs report

(Newser) - Stocks rallied at the end of the session today despite a grim November jobs report that showed unemployment rising to 6.7%, MarketWatch reports. Insurer Hartford Financial led financials higher after announcing that its business were doing better than it had expected. The Dow rose 259.18 to close at...

Daschle Begins Push to Reform Health Care

Would-be secretary will ask Americans to contribute ideas

(Newser) - Although his nomination as health secretary hasn't yet been announced, Tom Daschle is already beginning his push for a comprehensive overhaul of the system, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a speech today, Daschle will emphasize that the economic downturn makes it all the more important to lower health care...

Now You Can Buy Insurance for Insurance

Think you'll lose health coverage? Firm will insure your right to it

(Newser) - Healthy and insured but afraid you might someday lose your medical coverage? UnitedHealth has just launched a new product that lets consumers pay now for the guarantee that they’ll be able to get insurance later—even if they get sick, the New York Times reports. Critics are skeptical of...

Brits Say Errant Flash Drive Jeopardized Data of 12M

Gov't system shut after find in parking garage

(Newser) - UK ministers shut down a government computer system after a memory stick containing sensitive personal data was found in a parking garage, reports the Daily Mail. The government insists the system hasn’t been breached, but an expert says the blunder jeopardizes the security of 12 million people. “The...

AIG Agrees to Freeze Executive Bonuses

NY takes tough action to limit payouts to curNewser Newsroom 1.15.0rent, former bigwigs

(Newser) - AIG will suspend bonus payments to its executives after getting pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The ailing insurance firm, which recently got billions of dollars in loans from the Federal Reserve, also will stop $19 million in payments to a former CEO fired in June. Cuomo said...

AIG Chief Defends Luxe Retreat
 AIG Chief Defends Luxe Retreat

AIG Chief Defends Luxe Retreat

(Newser) - AIG today defended the $440,000 luxury retreat it held on the heels of an $85 billion federal bailout, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a letter explaining its actions to the US Treasury, CEO Edward Liddy explained that the event—which racked up a $23,000 spa bill— was...

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