John Lummis

Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurer RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has agreed to settle a consolidated shareholder class action lawsuit at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by paying $13.5 million. RenRe announced the settlement on February 14, 2007 - five days after the firm disclosed that it had agreed to pay $15 million to settle a securities fraud lawsuit regarding the same conduct that was brought at the same court by the SEC. Neither settlement required the reinsurer to admit liability.

Bermudian Michael Cash, who resigned as on officer of RenaissanceRe after refusing to accept service of an SEC subpoena, will soon have a few more process servers at his door.Along with four other officers and the company itself, Cash has been named as a defendant in at least two class action complaints filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Segments of Bermuda's insurance industry are in chaos as law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the United States crank up their investigations into offshore transactions.AIG's local operation appears to be in melt down, while finite risk reinsurer Inter Ocean Reinsurance

RenaissanceRe Chairman and CEO James Stanard has topped InsideBermuda's annual insurance executive compensation review for the sixth consecutive year with a package valued at $17 million for 2002.His package was 50 per cent higher than the runner-up, his colleague William Riker, with RenaissanceRe officers filling the highest four positions and five of the top six.