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Combating climate change in the credit crunch
Over the last few years the financial services industry has started to understand the risks of failing to address climate change and none more so than the insurance industry. The increasing number of extreme weather events has impacted on insurance..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Mutuals to be forced out of liability insurance lines
Some companies may opt to de-mutualise in order to side-step the legislation
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Reinsurers full of hope
But few companies were willing to quantify the extent of the predicted market hardening or to say which lines of business would take the lead. Others hailed current market conditions as an historical precedent comparable with the hard market created by the stock market collapse in the 1970s
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Industry will operate at a loss for next two years
Companies only imposed meaningful price increases recently; claim denial assumes role in industry’s loss mitigation strategy
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Balance sheet pressures likely to transform pricing trends
Loss events in isolation may not be market changing, but their collective impact could be greater than the sum of the parts
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Variable life insurers face competition in meeting market demand
If insurers do not rise to the challenge posed by variable risk, other financial institutions – both public and private – soon will
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Supervisors and rating agencies blamed for crisis
The IAIS conference heard that the AIG rescue and fears over toxic assets have put supervisors in the spotlight
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Regulator threatens action over “unacceptable” PPI sales
A mystery shopping exercise discovered that few customers applying for a loan were told PPI premiums would be added
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Rating agency takes negative view of both life and non-life sectors
Even the market’s capital adequacy (as measured by Solvency I) is expected to decline as credit spreads increase, as equity markets performed poorly, and as the business mix shifted to euro-denominated products
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Chairman resigns after fines for regulatory infringement
Penalty imposed on Quinn Insurance after failure to disclose loans made to other businesses in the group
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
European life companies dragged down by Asian market turmoil
These are challenging times for insurance and reinsurance sector stocks. After suffering one of the worst declines in value over the previous period, most of the stocks tracked by WIR, deteriorated further over the two weeks ending 23 October,..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Business slowdown underway in local markets
Early signs of a reduction in insurance spend in Chile do not bode well for the rest of the Latin America region
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Government proposes compensation scheme to protect retail funds
Finance houses that have frozen funds will not be eligible • Nervous investors reduce Axa New Zealand fund levels
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Late reports
3.10, Clemenceau ruling
UK: Able UK, the Hartlepool ship dismantler, welcomed a court ruling which clears the way for it to break up Clemenceau, the former French aircraft carrier, at its Teesside environmental reclamation and recycling centre. The..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Axa Group
The impairment of financial instruments was largely responsible for the 20.0% reduction in Axa’s net investment result
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Small market with big potential in TPL and PMI sectors
Because of its common law legal system, third party liability premiums in Fiji are at a higher level than in many other developing economies. Fiji is unusual in having a large private medical insurance market, stimulated by limited state health care and a practice of evacuating surgical cases to private hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. Despite these positive factors, however, insurance penetration is almost entirely limited to the urban population: the majority of Fijians are subsistence farmers with little to insure and no money for non-essential purchases
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Aviation
7.10, crash, fatalities
South Africa: nine people, including four children, were killed when their light aircraft, a Britten Norman BN 2A-26 Islander, ZS-OSD, crashed in the mountainous province of Mpumalanga. The aircraft was returning from..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Natural catastrophes
7.10, volcanic eruption
Indonesia: a volcano in central Indonesia erupted, shooting clouds of smoke and flames into the sky. Indonesia’s vulcanology centre said Mount Soputan on Sulawesi island, roughly 1,350 miles northeast of Jakarta,..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Marine
8.10, vessel adrift
Taiwan: Pontoon Transtar 2501 (1941 gt, built 2005), carrying more than 30 pieces of heavy machinery but no crew, was spotted adrift north of Green Island, Taiwan by the coast guard. The vessel floated in a northerly direction..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Property damage and business interruption
7.10, computer system failure, flight delays
Australia: local airline Jetstar said that passengers would be delayed for another day after being caught up in check-in system failure. The airline’s computer system crashed for two and a half..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Asia
RMS opens Beijing office
The US risk management and catastrophe modelling firm, Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has opened a new office in Beijing. The office will be headed by Zifa Wang, a well-known earthquake engineer who has joined RMS from the..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
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849 - 03 November 2008
Europe
Warning to brokers
Financial services advisory firm BDO Stoy Hayward LLP issued a warning to insurance brokers to take all necessary steps to ensure that money they deposit with banks on behalf of their clients is safe if the bank were to fail...
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
North America
Outlook bleak for title insurers
The significant slowdown in the housing market and increased claims activity from higher home foreclosures means that, within the US industry, title insurers are among the hardest hit. Indeed, according to a special..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
International
Tough times, but not too bad for insurance industry
The global insurance industry is facing difficult times but the sector is not undergoing a systemic crisis, according to market research firm, Datamonitor. Jonathan Steiman, an analyst on..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008
Natural catastrophe losses and reinsurance claims: the legal issues
With hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and tropical windstorm Hannah, having battered much of the Caribbean and southern United States, 2008 will be the most active hurricane season for the (re)insurance industry since hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma..
Online Published Date:
03 November 2008
Appeared in issue:
849 - 03 November 2008