What’s New: In Brief (November 04, 2008)

Crawford & Company reported a net income of US$6.9 million in 2008 Q3, up from US$3.5 million for the same quarter last year.
Net income in the first nine months of 2008 was US$23.9 million, up 87% from US$12.8 million for the 2007 nine months.
“Our third quarter 2008 operating results reflected sustained growth in our business, achieved through incremental revenues and the results of our continued focus on cost control and technology-led process improvements,” Jeffrey T. Bowman, CEO of Crawford & Company, said in a release. “This performance builds on the solid results generated thus far in 2008 in the face of an increasingly difficult macro-economic environment.
“The solid performance of our core business was enhanced by incremental activity in our catastrophe-related business due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the United States,” he continued.
“Our outlook for the final quarter of 2008 reflects the incremental improvement we expect to achieve in the U.S. related to the influx of catastrophe-related claims, a gain generated from the sale of a non-core European operation, partially offset by a charge to restructure certain of our operations,” he added.

Grant S. McEwen has been appointed the new chief financial officer at Chubb Insurance Company of Canada.
McEwan was most recently director and controller of world markets trading and treasury finance at CIBC. He brings international experience to Chubb through his work in Canada, the United States and Australia.