An insurer's decision to write new lines of business can be restricted by a number of factors.

In September, the European Commission published its final report on competition in business insurance.

In recent speeches, both Callum McCarthy, outgoing Chairman of the FSA, and Hector Sants, its Chief Executive, have called upon the financial sector to reconsider its incentive structures.

Paulette Warrington of Elborne Mitchell examines the guidance in the new Code of Practice on Whistleblowing Arrangements and provides recommendations for employers to deal with protected disclosures by workers.

The FSA will have to tread carefully on commission disclosure to avoid disadvantaging UK brokers, argue Elborne Mitchell’s Tim Brentnall and Alexandra Booth.

Tim Goodger, insurance partner of City of London commercial law firm Elborne Mitchell, discusses some of the current issues arising out of the Financial Services Authority's Client Money Rules including the discrepancies between the way intermediaries hold funds for insureds as well as insurers and their contractual obligations as set out in terms of business agreements.

Insurance disputes which turn solely on the question of notification do not come along very often. This is one reason why the litigation between chartered accountants, HLB Kidsons, and their professional indemnity insurers, has attracted so much attention.

AIRMIC’s new voluntary scheme to reduce the use of Reservation of Rights will benefit all parties, but only if they approach it in the intended spirit, say Jonathan Bruce and Andrew Stevenson of Elborne Mitchell.

It was four years ago that Eliot Spitzer began his investigations into the insurance market.

"We do not want to be caught napping on this", the FBI is reported to have said as it jumped on the bandwagon of investigating finite reinsurance deals in the United States of America.

For the TrustMark certification bodies, their brokers, insurers and even the FSA, the dream is turning into a bit of a nightmare.

According to the FSA paper, credit writebacks arise for various reasons but generally represent net overpayments to insurance or reinsurance intermediaries and unclaimed balances held on behalf of customers, insurers, reinsurers and all third parties.

Although the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 are substantially different from what the Labour administration had contemplated when the concept of Home Information Packs was originally promulgated, they retain dangers for Buyers and Sellers alike.

THE problem of piracy has recently hit new heights in Somalia with the hijacking of Faina and Sirius Star. With the latter, we are talking of insured values of up $100m for the cargo and up to $150m for the hull, at a time when insurers are already under pressure.