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Pollution cover on offer in China
Asia
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Oxygen enters PFI space
Europe
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14 April 2008
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Zurich launches new commercial lines unit
North America
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14 April 2008
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Mortgage fraud on the rise
North America
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14 April 2008
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Challenging year ahead
International
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Aviation
19.3, airline grounded
Indonesia: Indonesian budget airline Adam Air was banned from flying on safety grounds. Indonesia’s chief of air transport said the decision was based on the results of a quarterly safety evaluation, which found..
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14 April 2008
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Marine
18.3, sinking, fatalities
Japan: the Coast Guard is continuing its search for two missing Filipino crew members of general cargo vessel Gold Leader
which sank after a three-vessel collision in the Akaahi Strait on Mar 5. Gold Leader
, manned by..
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Liability, awards and settlements
18.3, violation of Clean Water Act
US: the pilot of fully cellular con-tainership COSCO Busan
which collided with the San Francisco Bay Bridge resulting in the discharge of approximately 58,000 gallons of oil, was charged with violations of the..
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Property damage and business interruption
18.3, explosion
Egypt: an explosion which took place in the Gulf of Suez on 8 March on an oil rig owned by Saipem and rented by the Egypt based joint-venture company Petrobel, closed down production at nine nearby wells for three days. The explosion..
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
RenaissanceRe Holdings Limited
As a result of the media and official scrutiny of the global credit crisis in the past few months, by far the most publicised of RenaissanceRe’s losses was the $167.2mn write off of the company’s 33% investment or ‘carrying value’ in Channel Re
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14 April 2008
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Banks raise the stakes for non-life, as well as life, market share
During the 1980s Finnish insurers wrote a sizeable amount of international reinsurance and retrocession including LMX business. The various losses from numerous man-made and natural catastrophes, exacerbated by the London market spiral, hit all companies writing reinsurance. The experience has left the market chastened and still nursing its run-off portfolios
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14 April 2008
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Sector stocks shrug off talk of recession
The insurance and reinsurance stock prices tracked by WIR not only put in their strongest performance this year for the two week period ending 3rd March, but did so against a back ground of continuing uncertainty in the financial markets. Over the..
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Chilean health insurers confirm plunge in 2007 earnings
Operational earnings were down 65% • More newcomers start-up in Chile • Micro insurance venture opens in Peru • Nat cat cover launched in response to Ecuador flood risk • Bolivian insurers report 9% drop in 2007 premiums
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14 April 2008
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Regulator limits foreign players to one insurance joint venture
It is not clear whether ING and Metlife - which already have stakes in more than one Chinese insurer - will have to sell up
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14 April 2008
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Alex Letts, chief executive, RI3K
Alex Letts came into the insurance industry from a background in advertising and e-commerce to establish RI3K, an electronic trading exchange. He had every intention of being out of the industry within three years: by his own admission, he had no love, knowledge or experience of insurance. Eight years later, he is a fervent believer in the importance of the industry to the UK economy and the importance of maintaining its competitive edge. In this regard, he sees RI3K as the most important infrastructure project undertaken in the UK in the financial services sector for 25 years: “If we get this right, it will be the lasting solution for the industry, like rebuilding all the roads in England or like changing the underground system and making it work.”
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14 April 2008
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Aviva enters Irish health market
The deal comes as no great surprise since Hibernian has been distributing Vivas policies for the last two years
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14 April 2008
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Vienna Insurance secures distribution deal on Erste insurance buy
The Austrian firm’s products will sell in 2,900 Erste branches • Zurich Financial Services • Groupama • Generali
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14 April 2008
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Berkshire Hathaway’s bond insurer receives 45 state licences
NAIC stepped in to speed up the process • Allied World launches reinsurance arm • Florida market causes concern, Fitch
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14 April 2008
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NAIC climate risk proposal hits heavy weather
Insurance associations object to plans that would mandate for climate risk disclosures in insurers’ annual statements
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Why bad statistics are not a myth
The statistics produced by the Central Union of Marine Underwriters (CEFOR ) are often met with scepticism. Here Christian Irgens, a former chairman of CEFOR’s Statistics Forum addresses a number of common concerns. How can a market survive with results as the ones reported by CEFOR, and why is the CEFOR average always worse than the individual results of all the reporting companies? While acknowledging the fact that the vast majority of fleets tend to show good results, even if the market results are terrible, Mr Irgens argues that the ongoing and relentless belief of hull and machinery underwriters in fleet statistics prevents them from addressing deeper problems in the market
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Managing risk with application security
Security bugs and vulnerabilities are in themselves not news. What is news is that, as other lines of attack are closed to hackers through use of point solutions, such as anti-virus control, hackers are turning their attention to the remaining..
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14 April 2008
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Algeria opens up to France
French companies are undeterred by concerns that the Algerian life insurance market is handicapped by the country’s Islam-based legislation, which tends to transfer the death benefits from life insurance into the deceased’s estate – to be shared by the deceased’s relatives, giving precedence to men over women
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Eureko targets FBD
Despite declining results over the last few years, FBD’s average return on equity from underwriting over the last five years is a staggering 51%
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14 April 2008
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835 - 14 April 2008
Takaful overtaking conventional insurance
Middle East
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Micro insurance in China
Asia
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Corporate manslaughter cover
Europe
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
New pricing model for CEA
US
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28 April 2008
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US most popular destination for captives
International
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Aviation
4.4, crash, fatalities
Suriname: experts from the Netherlands were due to arrive in Suriname to help identify victims of a plane crash in a remote jungle that killed all 19 on board. The twin-engine Antonov-AN28, operated by Surinamese carrier Blue..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Marine
3.4, sale of bulk carrier
South Africa: the sale of bulk carrier Lady East
in Richards Bay for an unexpectedly high figure, illustrated the unprecedented demand for tonnage in the global shipping market. The vessel was sold for $6.575mn. At..
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28 April 2008
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Liability, awards and settlements
9.4, Andrew J. Barberi, settlement
US: the family of a man killed in the 2003 crash of ferry Andrew J.Barberi
agreed to a $1.5mn wrongful-death settlement with the city, their lawyer said. The victim was one of 11 people who died when the..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Property damage and business interruption
1.4, chemical spill
Australia: a chemical spill in the Broughton River was described as the worst environmental disaster in history for the Charters Towers region in north Queensland. Land-holders along the river use it for drinking water and..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Chubb Corporation
Chubb’s exposure in hurricane risk states like Texas is less than 5.0%. Indeed, no state – other than New York, California and New Jersey - accounts for more than 5.0% of the group’s premium income
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Foreign investors wait for next wave of market consolidation
The life market has been undergoing fundamental change since about half of the foreign companies that obtained licences during the period 1995 to 2000 have withdrawn or merged. Interest rates have fallen and the larger life offices, in particular the foreign companies, have repriced their traditional products and are moving away from guaranteed interest rate returns to participating and investment-linked contracts, which will put further pressure on the smaller domestic companies to compete
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Sector recovery cut short by IMF judgement on credit crisis
After two successive periods of quite strong recovery amidst the general turmoil, the insurance and reinsurance stocks tracked by WIR deteriorated markedly for the fortnight ending 17 April as the market was confronted by a series of bad news..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Coface looks to Ecuador and Uruguay for regional growth
The credit insurer wants up to 40% growth • Colombia proposes reform for US free trade pact • Delay strikes Costa Rica market opening • Dominican Republic premiums up • Peru pensioners offered currency options • Paraguay market stagnating
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Foreign companies line up to enter Brazilian reinsurance market
Companies are emphasising the provision of risk management consulting services as much as the provision of reinsurance capacity to the Brazilian primary insurance market
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Regulator expects more new entrants to insurance sector
The rate of growth in India’s life insurance sector will attract further investors, particularly from banks
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
LIC’s market share slips as industry premiums double
Private insurers are closing down the gap on India’s only public sector insurer
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Insurers’ association backs extension of Solvency II to pensions
New solvency rules would provide some much-needed harmonisation to pension fund arrangements in Europe, says the CEA
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Sava Re launches IPO to fund further expansion plans
The reinsurer has diversified into direct insurance • European property cat reinsurance rates to record renewal falls, Aon
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Soft market conditions “accelerating” in first quarter
Two market surveys agree that 2008 will not see an end to soft premium rates
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Hurricane predictions need to take a longer view
With another active storm season in sight, forecasters are under pressure to improve accuracy
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Return to profit at least two years away for mortgage insurers
S&P downgrades four insurers as unemployment levels near 6% and fourth quarter results show further deterioration
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Grasping the unknown: Understanding workers’ compensation accumulations
Since the 9/11 terrorism attacks, the insurance and reinsurance industries have intensified their efforts to develop a better understanding of workers’ compensation accumulations. “Known” accumulations – which identify where..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
The influence of reinsurance capacity on primary market underwriting cycles
As with past cycles, the property/casualty insurance industry’s success is contributing to the deterioration of the market. Capital has grown tremendously in recent years despite significant recent growth in capital outflows from dividends and..
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28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
Pay as you drive insurance in France
The country has been slower than its EU peers to adopt pay as you drive schemes owing to privacy concerns raised by the national data watchdog
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008
A good start for Platinum
The business shown to Everest Re, one of the two early reporting companies, was more often rated less adequately than its renewing business. Joe Taranto, the company’s chief executive, said that the market was “into that normal part of the cycle where you have to work hard to get the proper margins”, but that it was doable
Online Published Date:
28 April 2008
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836 - 28 April 2008