A new Ohio insurance law changes the date for insurance companies

REGION

Deadline change

COLUMBUS — A new Ohio insurance law changes the date by which title insurance agents or agencies that handle escrow, settlement, closing, or security deposit accounts are required to have an annual independent financial review completed.

This amendment moves the current deadline for delivery of the financial reviews to a date that is out of tax season for CPAs being asked to perform the work, according to Ohio Department of Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson. In order to comply with the revised intent of the Legislature, the Ohio Department of Insurance will neither require nor accept independent financial reviews based on any period before the 12-month period ending Aug. 31, 2008. Independent financial reviews for that period will be due no later than Dec. 31, 2008, Hudson said.

NATION

Rite Aid donations

CAMP HILL, Pa. — The Rite Aid Foundation, a private foundation managed by Rite Aid Corp., said that in 2007 it has awarded about $1.7 million in donations to some 170 nonprofit organizations in 140 communities across the United States for programs focusing on health and wellness in communities that Rite Aid serves.

Programs funded included providing low-cost and free prescriptions for uninsured low-income people; refurbished hearing aids to people who could not otherwise afford them; educational and counseling programs to help prevent child abuse; low-cost medical services in medically underserved areas; programs to help teach children ways to manage and control asthma and diabetes; counseling services for children who are victims of domestic violence; parenting classes; and skills training for abused or neglected youth.

Aqua America purchase

PHILADELPHIA — Aqua America says its Indiana subsidiary has bought Western Hancock Utilities, a waste treatment system, for about $5 million. The Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Aqua America, which owns water utilities, said the plant is in a growing area east of Indianapolis, along the I-70 corridor that links the city with Columbus. It currently serves 50 businesses and housing developments.

Aqua America also will invest more than $500,000 in new sewer lines.

Western Hancock is the third acquisition completed this month for Aqua America. Last week, the company bought water systems just outside of Kankakee, Ill., and in Crawford County, Pa. Aqua America serves 3 million residents in Pennsylvania and a dozen other states.

MF Global settlement

WASHINGTON — Futures and options broker MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, agreed Wednesday to pay more than $77 million to settle federal charges that it failed to watch over a hedge fund charged with fraud two years ago.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the company did not adequately supervise accounts used by Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management, a hedge fund that regulators charged with fraud in summer 2005.

The CFTC, which pursued the case with the receiver in charge of the hedge fund’s assets, said it settled the charges with both MF Global and a former account executive, Thomas Gilmartin, who also had an ownership stake in the hedge fund and failed to tell his employer.

The hedge fund, the CFTC said, lost about $133 million in MF Global accounts, but hid large losses by restricting Internet access to accounts and backdating execution dates of some trades executed through MF Global.

Wire reports