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GLOBAL BRIEFS

Posted On: Aug. 3, 1997 12:00 AM CST

Members of The London Steam-Ship Owners' Mutual Insurance Assn. Ltd. have spent an estimated $300,000 removing 86 stowaways from their vessels during the first five months of this year, reports the London Club. Shipowners increasingly are being fined for allowing stowaways on board by countries that do not want stowaways seeking repatriation or political asylum. The London Club insures such fines as long as they are not incurred because of negligence. The $300,000 was spent on the operational costs of security and removing stowaways-by transporting them home, for example. The club has recommended a number of measures its members should take to reduce the risk. These include locking and guarding accommodation doors while vessels are in port, maintaining a gangway watch through loading and disembarkation, keeping adequate records of stevedore gangs, searching vessels before leaving port and inspecting containers before they are sealed. . . .Ian Finlayson has been appointed divisional director of IRISC Claims Management, an affiliate of claims adjuster IRISC Ltd. in London that specializes in liability claims management. . . .Rating agency A.M. Best Co. has assigned a "positive rating outlook" and a B++ rating to Colonia Baltica Insurance Ltd., following the company's first full year of trading. Colonia Baltica was formed by the merger of Colonia Insurance Co. (UK) Ltd. and Baltica Insurance Co. (UK) Ltd. and is jointly owned by Colonia Versicherung A.G. and Tryg-Baltica Forsikring A/S. . . .Creditors of Andrew Weir Insurance Co. Ltd. will receive increased payments under the insurer's scheme of arrangement, after a financial review by scheme administrator Paul Evans of Price Waterhouse. The creditors will receive a payment of 18% of what they are owed, up from 15% set a year ago. So far, almost 3 million pounds has ($4.9 million) been paid to creditors of the scheme since it went into effect in 1994, and the increase will represent a further 600,000 pounds ($978,000) in payments. At the end of last year, Andrew Weir, which ceased underwriting in 1991, had estimated total assets of 87 million pounds ($141.8 million), against estimated total liabilities of 222 million pounds ($361.9 million). . . .London-based broker Swire Blanch Insurance (Holdings) Ltd. has set up a new aviation department headed by Ben Pothecay, who formerly was with Bain Hogg Ltd. Swire Blanch is jointly owned by U.S. broker E.W. Blanch Holdings Inc. and Hong Kong-based Swire Group. . . .Euclidian P.L.C., a Lloyd's of London corporate capital vehicle, has announced it will set up a new managing agency and composite syndicate, which will mainly underwrite non-marine business beginning next year. . . .The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry has authorized ReliaStar Reinsurance Group (UK) Ltd., a reinsurance subsidiary of ReliaStar Life Insurance Co. of Minneapolis, to set up operations in London. ReliaStar Re, headed by Managing Director Jonathan Bowers, also has become a member of the London International Insurance & Reinsurance Market Assn. and specializes in accident and health reinsurance. The new operation has paid in capital of 7.5 million pounds ($12.2 million), with a $60 million guarantee from ReliaStar Life. . . .Workplace accidents are on the rise in the United Kingdom, according to estimated figures released last week by the Health and Safety Executive, a government agency. For the 12 months to March 31, 1997, deaths rose 20% to 1.2 per 100,000 workers, mainly because of higher fatalities in the self-employed population. Fatalities in the manufacturing industry rose 36% to 57, from 42 for the same period the previous year. Fatal accidents to members of the public leapt to an estimated 394 from 86, though mostly this is due to new reporting requirements under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, which came into force in April 1996. These regulations have added railway trespasser fatalities and suicides into the figures, adding 251 deaths to the tally. Also, for the first time injuries due to workplace violence have been included: These figures indicate that two people were killed, 697 people received major injuries, such as fractures, and 3,980 suffered injuries that kept them away from work for more than three days.