After having spent the last four days in Baden Baden Reinsurance Towers returned to London last night.

Unfortunately for you wanting lists of rumours and intrigue, this year's German extravaganza was actually quite drama free.

To make matters worse, the quality of the champagne was down a little this year (have we been credit crunched, or does Reinsurance Towers have expensive tastes?)

The general consensus at the moment seems to be that rates will remain flat (apart from certain distressed lines) and the mergers and acquisitions rumours will die down until after January renewals as everyone knuckles down to do some work.

But back to the rumour mill - which always happens whenever there's a critical mass - or around five (re)insurance people - in the same vicinity.

If the gossips are to be believed then we'll see a few more new Lloyd's syndicates, funded by Bermudian reinsurers, due to crop up in January and Aon Benfield is to become Aon in 2010. We're off to the bookies to place our bets on the two events, in an effort to become the first people in the reinsurance game ever to be involved in gambling....

The question is, was Baden Baden this year just a giant European hand-shaking exercise for all those involved? Or did it serve some use? Let us know how you found the conference if you were there.

To see what we were up to at the conference make sure you check out our conference review video which should be up on our website next week.....

Katherine Blackler