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Steven J. Bensinger has been appointed chairman and CEO of Archer Group Holdings P.L.C. and Archer Managing Agency Ltd. He also retains his position as president of Chartwell Re Corp. Stamford, Conn.-based Chartwell Re owns Archer Group, and Mr. Bensinger's appointment needs Lloyd's approval. Archer Group's previous CEO, Stephen Wenman, left the organization as the announcement was made last Monday. . . .Aon Insurance Managers in London, a captive management division of Aon Corp., has appointed Jim Boyd and John Perham as executive directors. Mr. Boyd, previously managing director of Willis Corroon Management (Isle of Man) Ltd., will remain in the Isle of Man, where he will head AIM's European operations and its global business development. Mr. Perham, formerly a senior executive in Johnson & Higgins' Captive Management Group, will be based in Dublin, Ireland, and focus on global business development. . . .Anthony Medniuk, managing director of British Aviation Insurance Group, and Stephen Riley, managing director of Swiss Re UK Ltd., have been elected deputy chairmen-designates of the International Underwriting Assn. of London. The IUA, due to start up early in 1999 as the world's largest international insurer and reinsurer association, is being created by the merger of the London International Insurance & Reinsurance Market Assn. and the Institute of London Underwrit-ers. . . .Lloyd's of London has introduced a disaster recovery system into the computerized Lloyd's Insurance Network in order to help users to continue trading in the event of computer equipment at its London headquarters being inactivated by a disaster. LIN allows networks throughout the Lloyd's community to communicate and connect to other services. The disaster recovery system depends mainly on the installation of additional backup equipment at a separate site. . . .Bayerische Ruck is investing L10 million ($16.4 million) in the Wellington Group, one of the largest underwriting groups at Lloyd's of London. . . .A survey of U.K. corporate pensions by London-based market analyst Datamonitor concludes that one of the key trends over the past few years has been the increasing popularity of defined contribution pension plans, led by the U.K. subsidiaries of U.S. companies. This change also is attracting more overseas players into the U.K. pensions market, particularly from the United States, says the survey, Corporate Pension Fund Manage-ment. . . .Ice storms in Canada, floods in Britain and Year 2000 compliance costs have impacted heavily on the first-half financial results for 1998 of British insurer Guardian Royal Exchange P.L.C. Pretax profit for the six months to June 30 was L451 million ($752.1 million), down 8.7% from the prior-year period. Costs included L15 million ($25.1 million) from Canadian ice storms (BI, Jan. 19), L15 million from U.K. floods (BI, April 20), and L10 million ($16.7 million) on internal Year 2000 compliance. John Robins, group chief executive, said the underwriting environment remains competitive everywhere. . . .Losses from a fire at a printing factory operated by Germany's largest newspaper, Bildzeitung, will exceed 150 million deutsche marks ($84.6 million), said an underwriter. A spokesman for Hamburg, Germany-based Iduna/Nova Group, the lead insurer of a property insurance consortium, said insured property losses would likely exceed 100 million deutsche marks ($56.4 million) from the July 14 blaze in Essen-Kettwig, Germany. The extent of business interruption losses is unknown, but the spokesman said such losses likely will exceed the 50 million deutsche marks ($28.2 million) already reserved by Gerling A.G., the lead insurer on the business interruption loss, and others on the program. Investigators said arson was the likely cause. It is the worst fire in Germany since the Dusseldorf airport fire in April 1996 (BI, April 15, 1996).