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Ergo Insurance Group
Ergo, Germany’s second-largest primary insurance group, reported a 10% rise in pre-tax profit to DM1.6bn (US$747mn) in 1999. This was largely the result of its highly profitable foreign operations, which produced a profit of DM155mn, up 83% on..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Smaller retentions, bigger losses
The WIR
UK reinsurance survey (first introduced in Reinsurance Market Report
) is based on the annual returns of 205 general insurance and reinsurance companies, including companies in run-off or that have ceased underwriting reinsurance..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Axa life business leaps
French insurance giant Axa moved further into life insurance last year, leaving its property/casualty business to record only modest increases. Announcing details of its consolidated revenue figures for last year the company said that its strongest..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Scandinavian results hit by bear market
A slump in the Scandinavian equities market in the second half of last year is affecting the bottom line of the region’s insurers. But much of the decline in profitability can be ascribed to the surge in investment gains many companies..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Australia considers flood cover
Flood insurance is set to become an issue in the Australian election to be held later this year. In a pre-election tour of northern New South Wales, Labour Party opposition leader Kim Beazley said the Australian Government’s policy of leaving..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Latin America round up
According to the most recent report published last week by Argentina’s
Pension Fund Managers (AFJP) Superintendency, the private pension system has 81,000 beneficiaries. Fifty-nine percent are collecting death pensions, 27% are pensioners and..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Skandia struggles in the US
Skandia is feeling the pinch from the economic downturn in its largest single market, the US. President and chief executive Lars-Eric Petersson conceded that the Swedish group’s US results for the fourth quarter were unsatisfactory...
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Insurers not taking on software risk challenge
A leading US software risk management company has criticised the insurance industry for failing to adequately take into account the chance of software failure when writing a number of policies. Chief executive of Cigital, Jeff Payne, said that..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Indian rates escalate
Reinsurance rates for India have increased by 25%–45% over the past couple of months. The peak rate has risen to 0.47% of sum insured against 0.27% two months ago, according to industry sources.
This increase comes at a time when new private..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Scor moves towards specialty
Preliminary results released by Scor, France’s largest reinsurer, show that the company moved further away from its property/casualty base last year. For the first time in the company’s history, specialty business became the chief source..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
World Loss Log 6 February – 19 February
Late reports
2.2, flooding, fatalities
India: a state owned coal mine in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand flooded, killing 10 people with another 19 still unaccounted for. 65 miners were rescued immediately after the mine near Dhanbad, India..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
2000 year end
08/02/01
22/02/01
% change from 08/02/01
Capitalisation US$mn
Ace
US$
42.44
37.53
36.30
(3.3)
8,423
AIG
US$
98.56
85.70
82.05
(4.3)
..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Company profile: Patria Re
Mexican reinsurer Reaseguradora Patria’s gross premium income rose by 4% in 1999 to MP435mn (US$45mn) while net premiums written also rose by 4% to MP318mn, resulting in an unchanged retention rate of 73%. Established in 1953, Patria Re..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Company profile: Europa Re
Europa Rückversicherungs, part of the GeneralCologne Re group, writes non-life reinsurance on a global basis. The company saw a 17% increase in gross premiums to €129mn (US$117.7mn) in 1999, although this increase was almost entirely due..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Company profile: Sydney Re
Sydney Re saw its pre-tax profit rise by 44% to A$68mn (US$36mn) for the year ending 30 June 2000 as its underwriting result swung into profit. The company, part of QBE’s European operations, writes reinsurance business in Australia, the..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Handelsbanken Liv
Swedish financial services regulator, Finansinspektionen has approved the plan to demutualise Handeldbanken Liv. But because this is the first time that such a move involves an insurer offering savings products, and any decision will therefore set a..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
NRMA loses case
Australia’s largest general insurer NRMA could be forced to spend over A$1mn (US$520,000) to schedule a special general meeting following the decision of a Sydney court. The company had sought a ruling to stop individual shareholder Bill..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
EU recasts genetic liability Directive
A promise of EU legislation on environmental liability helped sway a vote on genetic engineering in the European Parliament last week. After a two-year moratorium on modified crops, the Parliament approved a recast of the much-criticised 1992..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
EU winding-up of insurers
EU legislation on the ‘reorganisation’ and winding-up of failed insurance businesses was cleared by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 15 February – a month after a similar measure on banks and other credit institutions was..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
New Zealand fire tax to be increased
The New Zealand Government has recently announced that the fire tax, which pays for the country’s Fire Service, will be significantly increased to pay for the financial difficulties of the Service. These difficulties include demands for pay..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
NZ insurers call for minimum liability insurance for foreign vessels
The Insurance Council of New Zealand is calling for legislation requiring all foreign vessels entering New Zealand waters to carry a minimum level of liability insurance. This comes in response to reports that two ships carrying nuclear fuel are..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
SPP in dispute
The quoted Swedish building company J&W is in dispute with SPP (Alecta) over the repayment of SwKr30.5mn of ‘overconsolidated’ or surplus pension funds.
The dispute concerns the pension policy of a subsidiary which J&W sold to..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Regulator steps in
Last week, Chile’s Superintendency of Securities and Insurance (SVS) intervened in the liquidation of a small locally owned insurer, Compania de Seguros La Italia, appointing one of its officials as temporary administrator for a period of 60..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Customer relationship management: Diverting to India
It is hard to believe but a group of people in their twenties watching videos of British soaps and sitcoms in a darkened room in one of the commercial districts of Bangalore represents the beginning of the biggest revolution to hit the global..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Indian earthquake update: The quest for cat cover
T
he massive earthquake that struck western India on 26 January and the 350-odd after-shocks of milder variety that continue to date, have made clear the need for appropriate insurance products.
WIR’s India correspondent
Saibal Dasgupta..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
Tryg-Baltica expands into Finland
Tryg-Baltica is to start selling non-life policies in Finland via fellow Nordea group member, the Finnish bank Merita. Tryg-Baltica is targeting between 50,000 and 100,000 customers before 2005.
The policies will be marketed in Finland under the..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
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657 - 02 March 2001
HIH sounds ominous note
Australia’s general insurance industry is again in turmoil following an announcement by insurer HIH that it is likely to declare a substantial loss when it finally releases its interim half-year results on 16 March.
While the company said that..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
Caribbean property rates too low
Caribbean insurance companies have been warned that the level of pricing for property risk remains inadequate in many parts of the region and needs to be increased.
In an area constantly threatened by hurricanes, earthquakes and floods – the..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001
What took you so long to find us?
Glen Hodgson
, vice president for Government and International Relations for the Export Development Corporation (EDC) of Canada, believes that one of the major challenges facing a sustainable export credit system is corporate social..
Online Published Date:
02 March 2001
Appeared in issue:
657 - 02 March 2001