London’s insurance and reinsurance community needs to think more internationally to survive in the modern marketplace, according to one of its most experienced practitioners

As Richard Banks steps down as Insurance Day editor, he looks back on more than 15 years writing about the London insurance market.

Insurance group Axa has pocketed £34.3m from the sale of two shopping centres in the UK – one in Oxford and one in the Welsh market town of Llanelli – to NewRiver Retail.

Anath Levin, currently head of financial markets at Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, has been appointed chief executive of Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings and will also chair Migdal Insurance Company Ltd.

Company market capital providers are waking up to the distribution opportunities presented by managing general agencies, according to John Holm, head of Capita’s MGA Investment division, which could potentially be backing three new vehicle launches before the end of the year.

Colm Holmes, the man credited with overseeing the $10bn run-off of centre Solution during his stint as group treasurer and head of capital management at Zurich Insurance Group, has joined Aviva as the new chief financial officer of its UK and Ireland general insurance operations.