California, Business Wire: Pacific Life Insurance Company announced today that Pacific LifeCorp, the parent company of Pacific Life, concluded the purchase of Scottish Re Holdings Limited and the United Kingdom (UK) portion of the International Life Reinsurance segment of Scottish Re Group Limited (Pink Sheets: SKRRF). It is anticipated that completion of the purchase of the Asia portion of the segment will be completed during August 2008. The UK portion of the transaction, which was announced last month, received all of the necessary regulatory approvals. The segment’s ongoing operations, to be rebranded Pacific Life Re, provide reinsurance solutions to insurance and annuity providers in the United Kingdom and Ireland and to insurers in selected markets in Asia. The headquarters will remain located in London with its Asia business being managed through Singapore.

Business Wire: A.M. Best Co. has assigned a financial strength rating of B+ (Good) and an issuer credit rating of “bbb-” to Bosna Reinsurance Co. Ltd (Bosna Re) (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The outlook for both ratings is stable.

The ratings reflect Bosna Re’s good business profile and good risk-adjusted capitalization, offset by a volatile operating performance.

A.M. Best Co. has assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and issuer credit rating of “a-” to Gulf Reinsurance Limited (Gulf Re), a newly capitalised Dubai-based reinsurer. The outlook assigned to both ratings is stable.

Gen Re—one of the largest reinsurers worldwide—is opening a new liaison office for Life/Health reinsurance business in Mumbai, India. After the Indian Regulatory and Development Authority had granted Gen Re’s operating company Cologne Reinsurance Company plc. a license to operate a liaison office in Mumbai in November 2007, Gen Re held the official opening ceremony on 2 June 2008 at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. At this event, several senior managers of the Indian life insurance industry came together with a group of Gen Re senior managers, led by Peter Lütke-Bornefeld, Chairman of Cologne Reinsurance Company.

Transamerica Reinsurance, a leading global life reinsurer and a division of Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company (TOLIC), an AEGON company, has introduced a new edition of the English-language version of its underwriting manual for international clients. The revisions to the Risk Selection Guide enhance content relevance and navigation, resulting in greater applicability and ease of use. Transamerica Reinsurance has a tradition of providing facultative and automatic underwriting guidance to our clients worldwide.

CHICAGO, PRNewswire-FirstCall: Aon Re Global, one of the world's largest provider of reinsurance brokerage and capital solutions and a unit of Aon Corporation, today announced it has acquired Peruvian reinsurance intermediary Cosegur Re, offering clients in Peru greater access to worldwide reinsurance markets and Aon Re Global's industry-leading catastrophe modeling and servicing capabilities.

Chicago, PRNewswire-FirstCall: Pricing is projected to be favorable for traditional property catastrophe reinsurance programs when insurers seek mid-year renewals, according to an analysis conducted by Aon Re Global, a unit of the Aon Corporation (NYSE:AOC) . While terms and conditions are expected to continue to improve, Aon Re Global expects price reductions will be a higher priority for cedents. The underlying fundamentals that drove the softening of price and terms and conditions at January 1, 2008 are expected to continue though the June and July renewal season.

AFP, Zurich: The world’s largest reinsurance group, Swiss Re, predicted Monday losses of 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.07 billion, €732 million) due to the US subprime mortgage crisis.

“Following completion of its October performance reporting, Swiss Re has to report a CHF 1.2 billion mark-to-market loss, or CHF 981 million after tax,” a statement from the Zurich-based company said. Swiss Re said its sub-prime securities had been written down to 62% of their starting value.