World Insurance Report

A new report from the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) said that the UK can expect greater rises in sea levels and heavier rainfall in winter as a result of climate change. In the south of the country – under a medium-impact scenario - the..

The divestment is part of AIG’s efforts to sell assets and repay government money that allowed the insurer to stay afloat

VHI welcomed the levy, which offsets the cost of insuring older policyholders, but its competitors were critical of the EU ruling

Fewer long term care policies are being sold and new policyholders are paying less

Despite reporting its second consecutive annual loss, Geneva Finance, one of New Zealand’s growing number of troubled finance companies, hopes to be back on track next year. In April last year, the company froze deposits worth NZ$138mn from..

The Administration of President Barack Obama is in the process of finalising proposals for reforming the United States’ financial regulatory structure. The aim of the reform is to avoid a similar financial crisis to the recent one. The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is strongly in favour of the inclusion of an optional federal charter for insurers to assure that the resulting regulatory structure operates effectively with respect to all segments of the US financial services industry. The US insurance sector is currently regulated at the individual state level. Here, in a letter sent to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner earlier this month, Frank Keating, president and chief executive of the ACLI, outlines the ACLI’s argument for the inclusion of an optional federal charter for insurance in the Obama administration’s plan for financial services regulatory reform

In 2007, France ranked fifth in the world and third in Europe in terms of non-life premium income, behind the USA, the UK, Japan, and Germany. In recent years, there have been a number of important developments in the market. For example, the French postal service was allowed to distribute non-life insurance products from January 2009, after the expiry of a ban which had lasted for several years. The post office is now expected to become a significant force in the distribution of mass market insurance products such as household and motor. The French government has also proposed modifying the natural catastrophe insurance scheme so that more of the risk is borne by the insurance sector. This change would be far-reaching and contentious, both because of allegations that flood plains have been unwisely used for construction and because of the difficulties in dealing with the subsidence risk

Insurers in the Middle East are likely to respond to the global financial crisis by focusing their efforts on underwriting and ‘core’ businesses, protecting their balance sheets and enhancing risk management in order to limit exposure,..

The 15% rate increase at the June renewals compared with a decline of 15% last year

Total assets held by pension managers were over 11% down on the year, despite stock market gains and positive Q1 earnings

Under the Commission’s proposal, only two of the existing four Block Exemption Regulations will be renewed

Asia is the world’s most rapidly growing economic region. Many Asian countries recorded high economic growth rates before the global crisis. Generally, the majority of the countries in the area produced GDP growth rates of between 4% to 8%. China has the fastest growth, over 10%, while growth rates for India and Vietnam were between 8% and 10%. However, the financial crisis in the US and Europe has seriously impacted economic development in the region with the result that personal saving rates have declined and the demand for insurance products has weakened. According to Weli Yuan, senior analyst in the Asia Research Group of technology research and advisory firm, Celent, the global economic downturn is producing a number of changes in the regional market. These include a shrinking demand for non-life insurance products, while an increasing number of life insurers are now offering basic protection and health insurance products in order to attract the attention of customers. With unfavourable insurance investments, in particular, and the global financial crisis more generally squeezing insurers’ profits, companies, in addition to increasing the prices of some insurance products, are also seeking effective ways to lower expense ratios and operating costs to remain profitable. Insurers are also paying much more attention to risk management. The trends discussed in this article reflect Celent’s view of the market based on ongoing discussions with the industry, and based specifically on interviews with Asian chief information officers at the end of 2008. These interviews covered new project spending, as well as details around budget allocation, architecture strategy, standardization, web services and SOA, and the insurance IT vendor market.

A combined Validus and IPC would have shareholders’ funds of $3.6bn which would put it in the same league as Arch Capital and RenaissanceRe

Late reports 20.5, crash, fatalities Indonesia: local air investigators sifted through the charred remains of a military transport aircraft which crashed into homes and burst into flames, killing at least 99 people. Investigators were trying to..

Consumer groups object to double-digit rate increases in a falling property market

By most measures, Chile is regarded as the third largest insurance market in Latin America. It is widely considered to have the most stable market and political environment in the region. These advantages, however, are significantly counterbalanced, according to M. Machua Millett*, by the relatively high costs of doing business in the market and the country’s mature insurance market, as reflected by the region’s highest insurance penetration rate of 6%. Given the maturity of Chile’s insurance market and regulatory scheme, it is not surprising that the market’s two most significant trends mirror efforts underway in the United States and Europe: the move to modernize the country’s insurance laws and theinitiatives to reform the solvency rules and capital requirements for the sector

A pilot scheme to provide insurance for business start-ups will be extended to the whole of France

Members of the CCRIF pool have increased coverage for hurricanes and earthquakes

Berkshire Hathaway’s National Indemnity has agreed to provide guarantees on directors and officers insurance policies offered by XL Capital Ltd’s global insurance unit XL Insurance. “Given today’s business climate, we believe..

Operating conditions last year were even more challenging for the group then the positive net profit result, which was boosted by a tax benefit of $99.0mn, suggests. Besides the challenges on the investment front, there was a marked increase in TRH’s loss experience. The latter was in part due due to damage caused by Hurricane Ike, which despite being only a category 2 storm, produced one of the highest insured loss figures in US history. In addition, many of the group’s core casualty reinsurance lines saw a deterioration in pricing despite an increase in claims experience over the cause of the year

Aon UK’s chief executive officer Peter Harmer is to leave his post after deciding to return to his home country, Australia. Mr Harmer joined Aon UK in January 2007 and since then he has been credited with driving change at Aon Risk Services in..

The values of the vast majority of insurance and reinsurance stocks tracked by WIR rebounded strongly over the two week period ending 11, June. The recovery, which comes after significant declines over the previous month, brought the insurance..