Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management has named Christopher T. Borowiec as sales director for the firm’s West Hartford office.

While some long-term trends look favorable for the life insurance industry, short-term challenges born of the current financial crisis will occupy executive attention for the next two to three years, according to a new report by Hartford-based Conning Research and Consulting.

Former AIG Chairman Maurice R. Greenberg has a bone to pick with the insurance giant’s perceived discount sale of its Hartford Steam Boiler subsidiary to a German reinsurance company.

Connecticut municipal leaders are urging state officials to allow local governments to levy their own sales and hotel taxes to help them deal with budget deficits.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, fell to 1143.8 last week, a decrease of 8.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1245.7 one week earlier.