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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: Le Mans Ré
Le Mans Ré was formed in 1999 as a vehicle to boost the European presence of 49% owner XL Capital and more specifically its subsidiary XL Mid Ocean Re.
The initial business of the new company came from French insurer Mutuelles du Mans, which..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Trenwick
In many ways, last year was a memorable one for Trenwick. The group increased its gross premium income by 56% to US$506mn. Although this expansion in business volume was in no small part due to the acquisition of the Chartwell Re Corporation..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Singapore
Although the Singapore economy staged an impressive recovery in 1999, the domestic non-life insurance market proved much less resilient. The market, which saw its gross premium income reduced by 8% at the height of the Asian financial crisis in..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Small states find debt cover
T
he Commonwealth Disaster Management Agency (CDMA) and Lloyd’s Liberty Syndicates have devised an innovative insurance programme to assist small states in the wake of a natural disaster.
WIR talks to CDMA director Robbie Lyle.
When small..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
AB-Aegon fined
Second-ranked Hungarian composite insurer AB-Aegon General Insurance has been fined Ft10mn (US$32,000) by the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority – one of the largest fines ever levied.
The company was found to be unable to substantiate..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Skandia refocuses in China
Swedish insurer Skandia has changed its strategy in China. The company is now looking for a partner for a joint venture either in Shanghai or Beijing.
Initially, it had been planning to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary. But the company discovered..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Zurich joint venture pays off
Following its bancassurance joint venture with Zurich Financial Services last March, Brazil’s Banco Mercantil Finasa has greatly increased its share of the domestic market. It has jumped from 23rd to 16th place in the country’s..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Allianz makes US debut
Allianz AG’s stockmarket debut in the US was accompanied by much fanfare but not much substance about its objectives in the world’s largest insurance market. There was the feeling that Allianz needed a scoop to woo the markets that blame..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
DB sells stake
Deutsche Bank is close to selling its 27% stake in Nürnberger Versicherung. Nürnberger recently fought off an attempt by Versicherungskammer Bayern to obtain a substantial stake in the company, with the aim of acquiring majority..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Reinsurance mergers: Third-quarter activity
Insurance industry mergers and acquisitions continue apace. M&A activity for the third quarter of 2000 made it the busiest period so far this year; 159 deals were announced – 64 in September alone.
Worldwide there were 439..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
If prepares for IPO
Troubled Scandinavian p/c insurer If has announced management and board changes in preparation for its impending float.
Johan Fredrik Odfjell and Jon Giverholt have joined the board of the holding operating companies replacing Skandia’s chief..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Allianz takes Indian stake
Allianz of Germany has picked up a 26% stake in Bajaj Auto General Insurance. Bajaj Auto has already applied on its own for a licence to operate in the non-life sector. The move follows the parting of ways a few weeks ago between Allianz and its..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Experts differ over UK storm losses
Floods and wind that have lashed the UK over the last two weeks are going to prove expensive for insurers.
But despite the speculation of some that global warming is to blame, most experts believe the severe weather is nothing out of the usual..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Secret deal revealed
Allianz and Munich Re have a co-operation agreement that is very difficult to end, according to documents released by Allianz in the course of its US listing. Confidential cooperative agreements among companies are quite common in Germany but have..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
World loss log 16–28 October
Late reports
12.10, airline crash, award
US: jury awarded US$6.5mn to a music student who claimed she remained emotionally shattered more than a year after surviving an American Airlines crash at Little Rock airport. 11 people, including the pilot,..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
World insurance stock prices
Company/group
Currency
1999 year end
19/10/00
02/11/00
% change from 19/10/00
Capitalisation US$mn
1. CGU
Ace
US$
16.69
37.81
40.44
6.9
8975
AIG
US$
72.09
94.63
96.25
1.7
222707
Allianz
€..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Company profile: Polish Re
As in most countries of eastern Europe, it is the large reinsurers from western Europe that dominate the reinsurance market in Poland. However, with liberalisation of the regulatory environment, traditional market shares are also being broken..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Correction: Sorema
Some of the figures in the table that accompanied the company profile of Société de Réassurance des Assurances Mutuelles Agricoles (Sorema) (WIR 646/16)
were incorrect. This was due to a mix-up between the company’s..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Ceska Pojistovna share down
The end of the third-party compulsory motor insurance regime at the beginning of this year in the Czech Republic impacted heavily on dominant local insurer Ceska Pojistovna. CP lost a major share of the business to the other eight insurers that now..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Hungarian reforms
Hungarian insurers’ trade association MABISZ and the Financial Supervisory Authority are considering changing the regulations regarding the payment of insurance commissions to multiple insurance agents. The intention is to delay the payment of..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Nigeria closes firms
The Nigerian authorities have forced 16 insurers into liquidation as the government begins to take real steps towards liberalising the country’s insurance sector. But the closures have not gone far enough for the head of the country’s..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Co-operatives to be permitted in India
India’s finance minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil has announced that the government is set to bring in major amendments to the country’s insurance act to facilitate the entry of co-operatives into the insurance sector.
Some of the major..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
ACC mulls rate hike
Claims for medical misadventure and mistakes have cost New Zealand’s recently renationalised Accident Rehabilitation Insurance Corporation (ACC) nearly NZ$67mn (US$33mn) in the past six years.
Ongoing claims – those requiring long-term..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Opic to help Ethiopia
A new bilateral trade agreement between Ethiopia and the US will make the struggling African state more attractive to US investors. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), a US semi-government body providing investment products to..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Brazil prepares new motor rules
Brazil’s Private Insurance Superintendency (Susep) is shortly to publish the new rules governing motor insurance. Among other issues, new insured values will be based on a so-called ‘reference schedule’.
Criticising the former..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
EC an insurance disaster
Insurance directives issued by the European Commission (EC) have actually caused a divergence in insurance regulation across the EU rather than the intended convergence, according to a leading academic. And the amount and number of regulations have..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Australian marine insurance reform
Australia has the opportunity to take an international lead – and enhance its competitiveness in the global market – by strategic reform of its marine insurance laws, according to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) president,..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
EU issues ultimatum to Italy
The European Commission has given the Italian government three weeks to end its price freeze on motor insurance premiums. If Rome fails to comply with the Commission’s 25 October ultimatum, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will be..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Chilean companies’ losses up
Chile’s insurance supervisor has released details of the third-quarter 2000 results for the country’s 23 non-life companies. They show that the improvement in premium revenue in the earlier part of the year has been maintained.
Premiums..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Caribbean to open climate centre
Governments in the Caribbean have decided to establish a permanent Climate Change Centre to monitor sea level changes in the future. The move has been prompted by predictions that the island nations are likely to be among the countries most at risk..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Eureko outraged over PZU setback
Pan-European insurance alliance Eureko has expressed its outrage at the further delay to the proposed float of former state insurance monopoly PZU. The company, which has been at loggerheads with the government almost from the time it first took an..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
New solvency rules
The European Commission is proposing to raise the minimum solvency margin requirements for both life and non-life insurers. If the proposals are approved by the European Parliament and EU national governments, insurance companies will have to..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Reinsurers talk tough
Reinsurers are taking a tougher line after their annual meeting in Baden-Baden. The recently renamed GE Frankona, a part of General Electric’s GE Capital, is seeking not to renew unprofitable business. The new management under Bob Dellinger is..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Nelson elected
While Florida will be remembered as the state that narrowly decided the presidential election, insurers had an interest in another contest in the Sunshine State.
Local insurance commissioner Bill Nelson has been elected to the US Senate as a..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 November 2000
Unlocking the future
Gary Benanav,
vice-chairman of New York Life Insurance Company and chairman and chief executive of New York Life International argues that the US financial services industry has much to gain from China’s accession to the World Trade..
Online Published Date:
10 November 2000
Appeared in issue:
650 - 10 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