Amlin has appointed the former chief executive officer of Farmers Group, Martin Feinstein as an independent non-executive director.

He will take his new post with effect from December 1.

“Marty Feinstein was an outstanding CEO of Farmers, one of the leading US insurers, and we look forward to his contribution to our board,” said Roger Taylor, chairman of Amlin.

American Mr. Feinstein, 59, was chairman and CEO of Farmers Group between 1997 to 2005.

He retired after 35 years’ service with that group. By 2005, Farmers was the third largest property and casualty insurance group in the US, with over $14 billion in premium revenue, 17.8 million policy holders and 18,500 employees.

While Farmers was owned by BAT and then by Allied Zurich, Mr. Feinstein served in turn as a director of the FTSE 100 companies, BAT Industries and Allied Zurich, from 1997 to 1998 and 1998 to 2000 respectively.

He is currently a non-executive director of Reynolds American, which is listed on the NYSE, Clear Technology and GeoVera Insurance.

The former two companies are incorporated in the USA and the latter in Bermuda.

l AM Best has upgraded Amlin Bermuda’s financial strength rating to A (excellent) from A- (excellent) and the issuer credit rating to “a” from “a-”. The outlook for both ratings is stable.

The upgrades are said to reflect Amlin Bermuda’s conservative implementation of its business plan and AM Best’s expectation that it will maintain strong risk-adjusted capitalisation.

In addition, the upgrades are said to reflect the good performance of Lloyd’s Syndicate 2001 (managed by Amlin Underwriting), as more than 90 percent of Amlin Bermuda’s business comprises either reinsurance of syndicate 2001’s account or additional lines on existing business already written by the syndicate.