What’s New: In Brief (November 13, 2008)

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is warning that the Canadian insurance industry may be the target of a national telephone fraud scam.The caller claims to be from the policyholder’s insurance company and demands the immediate payment, by credit card, of an outstanding amount on the client’s premium, an IBC release says. The caller then threatens to cancel the policy if payment is not received. The calls have taken place across the country, indicating an organized crime ring may be at work, IBC says.XL Insurance has appointed Ken Lam as senior environmental underwriter, rounding out the company’s specialized environmental underwriting team in Canada.Lam brings more than a decade of specialty underwriting experience to the environmental underwriting team, including six years of professional liability underwriting with XL Insurance’s design professional unit, which provides professional liability coverages to architects and engineers. His career also includes time with Zurich Canada and HB Group Insurance Management.