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After mining, a coal company is required to restore the land it disturbed, e.g., by regrading or replanting. The federal government requires coal companies to get bonds to assure their payment for these activities. Federal law permits coal mine operators in some cases to guarantee these costs on the basis of their own finances, a practice known as self-bonding,...

French insurer AXA is acquiring Bermuda-based property/casualty commercial lines re/insurer XL Group for $15.3 billion (€12.4 billion) in cash. The price represents a premium of 33 percent to XL Group closing share price on March 2, 2018. The move will shift AXA’s business profile from L&S (life & savings) business to P&C (property & casualty) business. The deal will...

Liberty Mutual has announced the operating structure of its recently formed Global Risk Solutions business, which will consist of specialty, reinsurance, and surety operations. The businesses included in the new arrangement are National Insurance, Global Surety, North American Specialty, and Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM). LSM is to operate all of Liberty’s reinsurance and specialty insurance businesses outside North America,...

The state auditor says he wants Medicaid providers to insure that they’ll do the work the state is paying them for by putting up some money to prove it. He’s backing a bill that he says will help the state recover money spent on fraudulent payments. Auditor Dave Yost said in December that his team found overpayments to 133...

Nevada tax preparers have been required to comply with a number of new requirements as of July of last year. These requirements include the necessity to pay application and renewal fees to become registered as a document preparation service, as well as to obtain and maintain a surety bond. Requirements of Assembly Bill No. 324 AB 324 introduced a...

The state’s budding cannabis industry gets a push in the right direction via a new surety bond issuance. The cannabis industry continues to struggle for recognition in the U.S., even as more enlightened policies in Canada have tilted the competitive advantage in that country’s favor. But a new surety bond approval from the California Department of Insurance is giving...

The insurance industry was not the first thought John Hohlt had when he was studying Finance at Fordham University. During the summer months of 2012, he sought opportunities in the real estate industry and eventually served as a licensed real estate agent for DSA Realty Services. After graduating, he got a leasing intern post at Weingarten Realty Investors in...

An argument from a group of insurers and brokers – that construction contractors should not have a duty to inform subcontractors of the existence of a surety bond – has been rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada. In Valard Construction Ltd. v. Bird Construction Co., released Thursday, Canada’s highest court overturned an Alberta court of Appeal ruling, released...

As insurers move away from their legacy systems and onto more flexible platforms such as Guidewire and Duck Creek, the days appear numbered for portal solutions. Real-time data exchange is now front and center as a priority for the Insurance Broker Association of Canada (IBAC), the national broker association announced Tuesday. The current work towards real-time data exchange is...

Peabody’s use of third-party surety bonds aims to to help liberate the cash it has tied up in bank guarantees. Big insurance companies will provide Australian governments with financial guarantees linked to the rehabilitation of coal mines run by Peabody Energy, under a third-party surety bond issuance that Peabody believes is a first for the Australian mining industry. Read...