Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s Pen Underwriting has acquired Norwegian MGA Fender Marine AS (Fender)

BMS Re has appointed Steve Housse (pictured) as managing director and facultative practice lead

Aon partner with AbsoluteClimo advances climate modelling for climate-based perils

AM Best has assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and a long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” (Excellent) to Delaware-based Velocity Specialty Insurance Company (VSIC)

Property and casualty (re)insurer Sompo has appointed Jesús García Matas (pictured) as head of property insurance for Iberia

The Bermuda Captive Conference has revealed Carla Harris (pictured), a senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley, as its keynote speaker

BMS Group has acquired specialty broker Bluebook Insurance Brokers

Risk management consultant Alan Gray LLC has appointed Seth Patel (pictured) as its CEO

Ryan Specialty has completed the acquisitions of Socius Insurance (Socius), Point6 Healthcare (Point6) and ACE Benefit Partners (ACE)

Risk Strategies has acquired Ohio-based specialty broker First Insurance Group

Steve Matthews (pictured) has retired as chief examiner and captive insurance coordinator for the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance and Office of the State Auditor

Specialty broker INSUREtrust has partnered with Indiana-based software developer SecondSight for risk management services