If you do business with Iran, it's probably going to be harder to get insurance coverage. Regulators and lawmakers in the U.S. are looking for stiffer penalties to thrust upon companies that do business with Iran. And insurers, likely acutely aware of how risk can spread, are starting to pull back.

Munich Re (0KFE) and Allianz (AZSEY) announced that they are suspending business in Iran, according to a report by Business Insurance. Neither company, however, stands to lose much. For Allianz, the lost premium is "negligible," and for Munich Re, it's only around $13.6 million.

The nagging notion that Twitter is nothing more than a way for a kids to piss away their time was put to bed in 2009. It came together, especially, for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season that followed, but even when you look at the year as a whole, it's clear that major businesses jumped on the microblogging bandwagon readily. A new study by the Society for New Communications Research shows that Fortune 500 companies became addicted to communicating in 140-character blurbs last year.

Among the Fortune 500, 35% of companies had active Twitter accounts last year, which means that at least one tweet had been unleashed in the past 30 days. And, the use of Twitter is concentrated at the top: 47% of the Fortune 100 had active accounts last year. Only 22% of Fortune 500 companies had public-facing corporate blogs as of last year, but those that do see the value of integrated communications: more than 80% of these blogs were linked to a corporate Twitter account.

Insurance company upgrades outpaced downgrades by 50% last year. In a report by insurance rating agency A.M. Best, Upgrades, Downgrades Moved at a Similar Pace in 2009, 36 commercial property/casualty insurers were upgraded, compared to 24 that saw their ratings head in the opposite direction.

According to the report, "By demonstrating consistently strong operating results over several years and maintaining sound underwriting discipline, conservative reserving practices and leading business positions in certain segments of the commercial market, these insurers have been able to strengthen their risk-adjusted capitalization."

Natural catastrophes weren't as expensive in 2009, as it seems the cost of everything imaginable also got smacked. Munich Re (0KFE), the world's largest reinsurer by revenues, pegs the total economic loss from natural catastrophes at $50 billion this year, only a quarter of the result for 2008. Of course, the benchmark year included Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Natural catastrophe losses remained far below the 10-year average of $115 billion.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes plunged, as well. In 2009, they reached only $22 billion worldwide, a decline of more than 50% from 2008. Winter storm Klaus, striking northern Spain and southwest France nearly a year ago, topped the list of costliest natural catastrophe events in 2009. It generated total losses of $5.1 billion and insured losses of $3 billion.

Long a topic of discussion, insurers and reinsurers are beginning to enter the microinsurance space. Scor (SCOR) firm invested in LeapFrog Investments, the first microinsurance fund, last month, and last week, the Microinsurance Network was launched in an effort to raise awareness of the sector.

In a mature industry, microinsurance is seen as having considerable growth potential, especially given the large numbers of people around the world who live without any form of coverage. Microinsurance protection ranges from property catastrophe to life and health. A recent study by Lloyd's of London found that 135 million people, 5% of the world's low-income people, are using microinsurance products, but that the total market size could range from 1.5 billion to 3 billion.

According to a leading re-insurer, disaster losses for insurers nearly doubled in the past year to reach almost $30 billion globally. The main culprits for the massive increase were calamitous winter storms in Europe, flooding in Britain and wildfires in the U.S.

Taking into account weather change, Munich Re anticipates an increased number of catastrophes in coming years and warns, "We should not be misled by the absence of mega-catastrophes in 2007," as "climate change is already taking effect" and "more such extremes are to be expected in the future."

The world's second-largest re-insurer estimates that losses to insurers from natural disasters jumped up to $75 billion this year. During 2006, losses from natural disasters totaled only $50 billion, while 2005 figures climbed up to $220 billion due primarily to Hurricane Katrina's ravaging of New Orleans.

Aon (NYSE: AOC) thinks that risk brokerage and consulting has the best future, in terms of margins and growth.

To that end, the company announced Monday that it is selling off its underwriting businesses. Combined Insurance Company was sold for $2.4 billion to ACE Limited (NYSE: ACE), while Munich Re bought Aon's Sterling Life segment for $352 million.

Yes, even in the massive insurance business, this is a good chunk of change for Aon.