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Global fire statistics
T
he World Fire Statistics Centre presented its annual report on the human and economic costs of fire damage to the UN Committee on Human Settlements meeting in Geneva in September. The report constitutes the most comprehensive study on global fire..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Company profile: Mutual & Federal
South African motor and property insurer Mutual & Federal Insurance suffered its first underwriting loss in a decade as unemployment, crime levels and the number of unlicensed drivers on local roads rose significantly during 1999. The group..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Generali
Italy’s largest insurer Generali Group has been part of the controversy over Italian motor premiums in 2000. It was one of the companies fined after the regulator found it had engaged in anti-competitive practices with other insurers. But the..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Hannover Re looks to London for growth
London is an increasingly attractive market in which to transact financial reinsurance and programme business, according to German reinsurer Hannover Re.
Releasing results for the first half of 2000 recently, the company included UK-sourced..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Gerling moves towards HIH takeover
Struggling Australian insurer HIH has moved one step closer to being owned by another European insurer after announcing a new deal with German company Gerling. The two companies are to form a managing general agency that will write HIH’s..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
A European business
The competition among the top four companies, as well as the pressure to operate on a global scale, is intense. According to Gerling Namur’s Bernd Meyer, no more than €25mn separates GCIC from its nearest rival, Coface, in terms of..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Consolidation
The credit insurance market has seen significant consolidation. This has been particularly the case in Europe, which accounts for 84% of global credit insurance premiums.
Gerling, for example, has acquired six credit insurance companies over the..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Where credit is due
One of the least publicised sectors of the insurance industry, credit insurance has suddenly come into the spotlight.
WIR looks at the market potential of credit insurance in the wake of the publication of two major studies on the sector over the..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Australian reforms
The Australian Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, Joe Hockey, has announced a major reform of the regulatory framework for the general insurance industry that will significantly modernise the prudential supervision of general insurers..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
AMP looks to sell GIO
After spending the best part of a year bidding for and acquiring GIO, rumours are awash in the Australian market that AMP is now preparing to offload its general insurance operations.
The company has apparently decided that non-life insurance is no..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Codan sues SEB
Danish insurer Codan is considering suing SEB for damages, following losses incurred by the Trygg-Hansa Sak non-life business, which Codan bought from the Swedish banking and life insurance group.
Trygg-Hansa’s Norwegian business, which..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
India’s GIC becomes reinsurer
The General Insurance Corporation, the state run non-life monopoly in India, has been renamed Indian Re-insurer. A government order has taken it out of the direct non-life business so that it can focus entirely on reinsurance business.
Since the..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Still one left
Reports of the death of the Australian reinsurer are premature. Australia’s largest general insurer, NRMA, has decided to stay in the reinsurance business following its stock exchange listing despite racking up a significant loss on the book..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Good prospects for farm scheme
The government subsidised scheme for agricultural risk in Chile, which has only been implemented since the middle of September, has already attracted 100 clients, and the insurance companies responsible for operating the scheme expect cover to..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
A laboratory for good ideas
Max Taylor,
chairman of Lloyd’s, explains how the use of the internet and related technologies will combine with the traditional strengths and changing structures of the Lloyd’s market to better meet the challenges of the 21st..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
1999 year end
2/11/00
16/11/00
% change from 2/11/00
Capitalisation US$mn
1. CGU
Ace
US$
16.69
40.44
39.81
(1.5)
8,836
AIG
US$
72.09
96.25
98.13
1.9
227,045
Allianz..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Company profile: Ingosstrakh
There is no doubt that 1998, the year of the Russian financial crisis, was tough for local insurers. So much so that 1999, an awful year for the international insurance market, could not be any worse. On the contrary, the Russian insurance market..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Company profile: Zurich Specialties London
Zurich Specialties London saw a sharp deterioration in its pre-tax result in 1999, recording a loss of £8mn compared with a £49mn profit for the previous year.
The company’s result for 1998 was boosted by realised investment gains of..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Company profile: Brasil Re
The Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil (IRB), the only reinsurer allowed in the market, was transformed from a state institution to a public limited company, IRB-Brasil Resseguros SA (Brasil Re), in 1997. The Brazilian government held all the voting..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Fiji
The Fijian economy has been going through a bit of a slump of late. And with the crisis that has engulfed the country in the wake of the military coup, it is unlikely to recover any time soon. It is all such a pity because under its multi-ethnic..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
IRB faces more hurdles
The privatisation of Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil (now known as Brasil Re since its transformation into a public limited company in 1997) now depends on the Brazilian supreme court decision on whether the law that transferred IRB’s..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
ESG Re downgraded again
Dismal third-quarter results have forced yet another ratings downgrade of struggling reinsurer ESG Re. The company’s three operating subsidiaries, European Specialty Re (Bermuda), European Specialty Re (Ireland) and European Specialty..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Signal Biztosito
German insurer Signal Unfallversicherung has increased its shareholding in its Hungarian affiliate Signal Biztosito by purchasing 21.6% of the equity from Uniqa Group of Austria and 13.7% from Società Reale Mutua di Assicurazioni. Signal now..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
FBD moves on Dublin in bid to increase market share
FBD Insurance, traditionally a server of the Irish agricultural market, is aiming to exploit its status as the leading Irish-owned insurer to expand its business in the greater Dublin area.
Approximately one-third of the republic’s population..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
NRMA in proxy confusion as annual general meeting looms
With only a couple of days to go until the NRMA annual general meeting, the company is faced with controversy over the voting of shareholder proxies at meetings.
An investigation carried out at the insistence of the board has found that a motion at..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Services
Graham Kent, general manager of GCIG in the UK, underlined the need for a global player in the traditional credit market to have a strong local presence as well.
“That is what gives you the information. That is what gives you the market..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Global networks
While all this product development is driven by e-commerce, it is also driven by the need to meet other demands and secure alternative sources of revenue.
“It is part of our strategy of competing on the basis of quality rather than on price...
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
E-commerce driven
For example, in Europe the size of the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce market is due to grow from €11bn in 2002 to €58bn in 2004, while the size of the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce market will grow from €357bn to..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Hungarian delay
The Finance Ministry has delayed full liberalisation of Hungary’s compulsory third-party motor insurance regime, following earlier moves to let firms introduce no-claims bonus rating to individual premiums. While these relaxations will be kept..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Earthquake campaign
Non-life insurers in Japan are continuing their campaign of posters and mass media briefings to improve the earthquake insurance uptake by the population. While the level of cover has increased since the great Hanshin-Awaji event in 1995, it is..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
Italian deadline
Last-minute representations by the Italian government secured at least a temporary stay of execution in the dispute between Rome and Brussels as to whether Italy is in breach of EU treaty obligations by acting earlier this year to freeze motor..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000
EBRD identifies strong growth in eastern Europe
A significant boost in foreign investment is lifting the economies in former Soviet Bloc countries, according to the Transition Report 2000
released by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. And investment in central and eastern..
Online Published Date:
24 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
651 - 24 November 2000