What a year it has been in the world, and including in the insurance industry. For the next four days, we’ll be recapping 2009 for you, sharing with you news stories that stood out throughout the year.

Today we start with the first quarter of 2009. On January 20, the world watched as President Barack Obama took office as the 44th President of the United States. Insurer Marsh placed the cover for the inauguration.

The friendly skies seemed more chaotic in the first part of 2009. On January 15, a US Airways flight made a quick decent into New York’s Hudson River shortly after takeoff. AIG was the lead insurer for this flight. Just over a month later, Turkish Airlines flight 1951, en route from Istanbul to Amsterdam, crashed and broke apart during its landing approach. Reports say that the plane’s hull was valued at about $47 million and that Turkish Airline had more than $1 billion in liability limits. Allianz was the lead insurer for this incident.

Manitoba saw a few bright spots early in the year. In January it was revealed that the province’s auto theft rates dipped to their lowest levels in 16 years. Then on March 3, Winnipeg recorded an auto theft-free day – a first in what one MPI executive called “as long as anyone can remember.”

The first three months of 2009 also saw some business transactions. BMO announced that it was buying AIG’s Canadian life insurance business; Aviva Canada split with PC Financial; Dutch parent ING sold ING Canada, which then rebranded as Intact Insurance and Western Financial Group bought Bakes-Jarvie.

Highlights from the first quarter of 2009:

Mergers, acqusitions and transactions
 


Insurance industry news
 


Liability and lawsuits