INSURANCE

Insolvent Insurer Banned From California: Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi barred unlicensed Western Star Insurance Co., based in the British West Indies, from selling insurance in the state. The firm is insolvent, with a negative surplus of $2.2 million, Garamendi said in a statement. California law requires unlicensed carriers to maintain $5.4 million in a U.S. trust account, but Western Star’s account contained only “a certificate of deposit from an apparently unregistered, unlicensed and therefore unregulated bank” in the South Pacific Republic of Vanuatu, Garamendi said. Yet Western Star had been collecting $1 million a month in premiums in California since January, he said.