The New York Department of Financial Services is requiring the largest force-placed insurers in the state to give details on their expenses, claims payments and profits to determine the validity of their homeowners insurance rates.

Insurance agents and financial service professionals may face additional threats from banks based on new research, which shows that financial institutions who allow investment and insurance products create a stronger relationship with their members.

American International Group joined a cadre of banks asking a federal court to block a proposed nationwide class-action suit against them over the global insurer’s near-collapse three years ago.

American International Group (AIG), the global insurer that at one point was 92% owned by the U.S. government after a $182 billion bailout, is taking legal action concerning billions of dollars it allegedly lost due to mortgage-related fraud.

Effectively targeting the middle market will increase the number of life insurance policies, despite the prediction that overall individual life insurance sales will remain “flat,” a new survey says.

An insurance agent trade group praised the New York State Insurance Department’s draft regulation that will allow insurance producers to use out-of-state and Internet-based banks.

Subjecting property-casualty insurers to bank-style regulation would increase insurance costs for consumers and penalize insurance companies for the sins of other entities within the broader financial services arena, according to an industry economist.

Income from bank holding companies’ sales of annuities rose 12.4%, to $734.5 million, in the first quarter of this year, setting a quarterly record.

The results are favorable both in terms …  Read →

Bank holding companies generated 29% more revenue from the sale of annuities last year than in 2007 and set a record with annuity sales of $2.61 billion.

Sales rose from the …  Read →

Banks that sell insurance make more money than banks that do not, according to an analysis of 2008 bank data.

Banks with some insurance activity had 69% higher media net income …  Read →