The unsure world of surety bonds. (Cover Story).
Suddenly, everyone wants to know about surety bonds. The once benign financial credit risk vehicle has been thrust into the limelight, as the subject of a high-profile lawsuit as well as being blamed for one company's bankruptcy. In the bankruptcies of both Enron Corp. and Kmart Corp., sureties have...

A Spotlight On Financial Risks.
The days of clearly defined boundaries between capital markets and insurance arenas are over. Newer specialty insurance products are emerging to insure financial risks not traditionally covered by insurance. New worlds are opening up for the specialty insurance markets. Where traditional insurance is reluctant to go, specialty...

Mary K. Bush.
A premium player in the international finance arena devoting her energy to Texaco's board. Mary K. Bush, president of Bush & Co., an international consulting firm, becomes the second African-American elected to Texaco's board. Her appointment closely follows Texaco's pledge, following its recent travails, of recruiting talented minorities to...

Banking on more political hazards: as commodity prices boom and expropriation and nationalization re-emerge, banks and other financial institutions thirst for credit and political risk cover.
For the pessimists, there's enough evidence to suggest the world's progress to hell in a handcart is relentless. Periods of hope, such as that following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, tend to be brief. Recent years have been marked by the Iraq war, mounting...

A roast of risk management.
Were comedian Jeff Foxworthy to make fun of risk management and insurance he'd find plenty of material in "Rupp's Insurance & Risk Management Glossary." If you think a "drop-down provision" is a software function on a vendor's application ... you might be a redneck. Drop-down...

Insuring Canada's exports: the case for reform at export development Canada.
The Study in Brief With Parliamentary review of the Export Development Act due in 2008, the federal government should seize the opportunity to streamline the operations and priorities of Export Development Canada (EDC). Straightforward economic reasoning and ongoing developments in the global financial services industry call into...

The Risks We Run: Mining, Communities and Political Risk Insurance.
The Risks We Run: Mining, Communities and Political Risk Insurance Roger Moody. 2005. International Books, Utrecht. ISBN 905727 006 4, $30.00 (paper) pp. 322. The risks of a mining development can be great: for people, communities, public and private sector organizations and the desired ecosystems...

New mortgage option available through CMHC.
The Nak'askli Band in B.C. has become the first community to take advantage of a new Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) pilot project designed to help address the shortage of available housing on reserves across the country. In November 2005, Nak'askli Chief Leonard Thomas announced the...

Instilling a code of conduct: elevating compliance from an exercise of the legal commonplace to a code of ethical conduct requires a culture anchored in integrity and principle.
There is scarcely a reader who does not recognize that insurance companies, among others, are under intense scrutiny these days from a financial, operational and compliance perspective. Against this backdrop, compliance has emerged as one of the most important areas of risk that an organization faces. In fact, it...

Forest fever: the year is 2010. Marcelo Calazans and Renata Valentim explore what it might look like for two very different Brazilians in the new carbon economy.
Monday, 22 April 2010. City of London, England. 6.30am. Hotel Room. The bowl flushes. Water and toilet paper disappear through the sewer. Having a slight cold and perhaps even a temperature, Dr A tucks the weekly market report he was reading...