Insurance news

• XL Catlin pushes global property capacity to $500mn

  07-06-2017 19:58
  XL Catlin has increased its global property insurance capacity by
  25 percent to $500mn, with the limit available on a quota share or
  layered basis.
  Tim McMahon, XL Catlin's chief underwriting officer for
  global property insurance, said the decision to increase capacity
  was driven by insurable values increasing as technology
  improved.
  Michele Sansone, president of XL Catlin's North American
  property business, added: "In the US and Canada, increasing
  property values, more investment activity in in
  
  Read more

• Schauble: InsurTech VCs not looking to replace carriers

  07-06-2017 19:58
  InsurTech venture capital investors seeking growth opportunities
  have a very different motivation to the capacity backing
  (re)insurance liabilities, according to Nephila managing partner
  Barney Schauble.
  "It's very different to the capital that wants to pay
  your claim," he said, speaking at The Insurance
  Insider's InsiderTech London conference today.
  "There's a huge role for the existing [risk capital
  provider]."
  In his speech, Schauble drew parallels between the growing
  InsurTech industry and t
  
  Read more

• RSG's Sapphire Blue MGA picks CUO from Markel

  07-06-2017 19:58
  Ryan Specialty Group's healthcare MGA Sapphire Blue has hired
  Debra Goldberg from Markel as its chief underwriting officer.
  At Markel, Goldberg was managing director for medical
  underwriting and worked on the insurer's medical professional
  liability book.
  Her portfolio included allied health care, medical facility, and
  physician, surgeon and dentist professional liability.
  The executive began her career as a medical malpractice defence
  attorney representing hospitals and healthcare providers aga
  
  Read more

• Ironshore moves up Lewis to Australia head

  07-06-2017 19:58
  Ironshore International has promoted private equity lawyer
  William Lewis to managing director of its Australia and New Zealand
  operation.
  Based in Sydney, Lewis continues to report to Ironshore Asia
  Pacific managing director Hui Yun Boo.
  Lewis moved to the post from head of M&A for the Asia
  Pacific division.
  Previously, he led the region's specialty lines business
  unit from 2016, having joined the company in 2012 as an M&A
  manager in Sydney.
  Earlier, Lewis was an attorney specialising in
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'Introverted' (re)insurance industry holding itself back: Mendel

  07-06-2017 19:58
  The "introverted and insular" attitude of the traditional
  (re)insurance industry is making it vulnerable to disruption by
  InsurTech firms, Bought by Many founder and co-CEO Steven Mendel
  has claimed.
  Speaking at The Insurance Insider's
  InsiderTech London event today, the executive said the
  industry was constraining itself from being truly innovative, in
  part because it cannot decide if InsurTech companies are friend or
  foe.
  "It's incredibly interesting that businesses like
  [start-up InsurTech fi
  
  Read more

• Allianz UK jobs at risk in household claims shift

  07-06-2017 17:09
  
  More Allianz UK jobs at risk following completion of household claims review
  
  Read more

• Allianz puts 70 people at risk of redundancy

  07-06-2017 17:08 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Insurer completes review into its household claims operations.
  
  Read more

• Towergate owners confirm new debt interest costs

  07-06-2017 17:01 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  KIRS prices up £800m of bond debt.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Claims team consolidation puts 70 Allianz jobs at risk

  07-06-2017 17:01
  
  Around 70 Allianz staff could lose their jobs as the insurer moves to consolidate its property claims teams.  
  
  Read more

• Firms need in-house disruption teams: Greenberg

  07-06-2017 14:39
  Incumbent insurers and brokers looking to fight off disruptors
  should establish teams of staff to examine how their own businesses
  need to change to future-proof themselves, Aquiline chairman and
  CEO Jeff Greenberg has said.
  Speaking at The Insurance
  Insider's inaugural InsiderTech London
  conference earlier today, the private equity executive said:
  "It's often helpful to have a small group of people off on
  the side, looking at the company they work for and asking: 'If
  I was a disruptor what woul
  
  Read more

• Athene shareholders raise $794mn in share sale

  07-06-2017 14:39
  Shareholders in Apollo-backed Athene have sold about $793.8mn worth
  of stock in a secondary offering, which was launched less than
  three months after an earlier sale that raised more than $1.3bn.
  The Bermuda-based company said 16.2 million shares changed hands
  at $49.00 apiece, which was 1.2 percent below Tuesday's closing
  price of $49.59. Underwriters have the option to purchase up to
  2.43 million more shares at the same $49.00 price over the next 30
  days.
  Athene did not name the...
  
  Read more

• Aviva stops selling standalone travel product through brokers

  07-06-2017 13:44 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Aviva chief distribution officer Phil Bayles says volumes were too low for the product to be commercially sustainable.
  
  Read more

• Ogden rate cut adds up to £1.72bn bill for insurers

  07-06-2017 13:30
  
  Insurers have so far been hit with £1.72bn bill from the Ogden rate cut, with the full impact still to come.
  
  Read more

• Insurers slammed over poor online communication

  07-06-2017 12:52
  
  More than two thirds of insurers do not answer questions from customers asked through email or social media, according to a survey.
  
  Read more

• Hiscox CEO opens exhibition celebrating immigration in Britain

  07-06-2017 12:25
  
  A new exhibition telling the stories of the children of immigrants opened at the Hiscox Art Café last night.
  
  Read more

• Aqueous Underwriting partners with SchemeServe

  07-06-2017 11:49 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Partnership will deliver a new online cloud-based platform for brokers.
  
  Read more

• Last chance to enter the UK Broker Awards - deadline today

  07-06-2017 10:50 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  Don’t delay in completing your submissions.
  
  Read more

• S&P cuts AIG rating outlook to negative

  07-06-2017 10:23
  Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has
  lowered AIG's rating outlook to negative from stable, saying
  the company has been "subpar" at meeting targets.
  The revision comes less than a month after former Hamilton CEO
  and chairman Brian Duperreault took the reins as AIG CEO.
  The ratings agency, which affirmed AIG's ratings in the
  Tuesday report, said AIG's recent track record of delivering on
  strategic goals, notably within the company's flagship P&C
  commercial insurance divisi
  
  Read more

• Opinion: Family problems

  07-06-2017 10:23
  No one can blame Maiden for doing its best to defend its
  business and sagging share price from collateral damage inflicted
  by sister company AmTrust, and in an investor presentation this
  week company leaders did just that.
  But it failed to do the trick.
  Maiden shares slipped $0.10 yesterday to close at $10.50 in New
  York. They are down about 40 percent so far this year, having been
  pulled lower by AmTrust.
  Still, AmTrust has fared worse. While posting a...
  
  Read more

• Arch discloses $38mn property fac reinsurance hit

  07-06-2017 10:23
  Bermudian (re)insurer Arch Capital said losses from its property
  facultative reinsurance book will erode $38mn from its pre-tax
  underwriting profit in the second quarter.
  In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Tuesday,
  Arch said: "Such activity related to losses incurred on a
  small number of contracts across multiple underwriting years and
  represents an unusually high level of activity for the property
  facultative reinsurance unit."
  The SEC filing added that since its inception
  
  Read more

• We need to talk about fire claims

  07-06-2017 08:00
  
  With concerns growing about the coordination of the many parties involved in investigating major fire claims, a roundtable recently brought together insurers, adjusters, forensic investigators and fire service chiefs. As they discussed the many challenges facing them, they all came to the conclusion that they should keep talking to one another.
  
  Read more

• Hub picks up California-based broker Colton

  07-06-2017 05:36
  Private equity-backed broker Hub has acquired California-based
  personal lines intermediary Colton Insurance Associates.
  The assets of the newly acquired agency are held by The Ponce de
  Leon Insurance Group, which will become part of Hub.
  Colton's staff will join Hub's Sacramento operations and
  report to state executive vice president Rob McVicar.
  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but it comes as
  Hellman & Friedman-backed Hub is known to be shopping
  around.
  Last week, this publicati
  
  Read more

• AJ Gallagher acquires Michigan-based broker

  07-06-2017 05:36
  Expansive broking house Arthur J Gallagher has added another
  agency to its growing stable with the acquisition of
  Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  The newly acquired intermediary has clients in the Great Lakes
  State as well as California, Gallagher said in a statement.
  It described Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle as a
  "full-service" broker with a commercial and personal
  property and casualty operation as well as employee benefits, life
  insurance and human resources divisions.
  Gall
  
  Read more

• $300mn workers' comp scheme laid bare in California

  07-06-2017 05:36
  A massive workers' compensation fraud ring included 10 Los
  Angeles lawyers who collaborated with a pair of business owners to
  recruit thousands of mainly Spanish-speaking immigrants to make
  bogus injury claims which may have totalled more than $300mn,
  authorities said yesterday.
  One of the businesses allegedly involved opened in 2005,
  according to Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
  Investigators say they were tipped off to the scheme three years
  ago by an insurer they didn't identi
  
  Read more

• Pure extends E&S platform to South Carolina

  07-06-2017 00:35
  High net worth specialist The Pure Group (TPG) has expanded its
  recently launched excess and surplus lines (E&S) platform into
  South Carolina.
  The Pure Programs managing general underwriter (MGU) opened for
  business late last year writing on the paper of XL's Indian
  Harbor subsidiary in a move first revealed by The Insurance
  Insider.
  In describing its latest move, White Plains, New York-based TPG
  said the E&S line from Pure Programs targets high-risk homes
  insured for $1mn or more.
  The c
  
  Read more

• New Towergate group KIRS prices £800mn debt offering

  07-06-2017 00:35
  Consolidated broker holding company KIRS Group priced about
  £800mn ($1.04bn) in debt today through sales of five-year
  securities that carry rates well above high-yield bond
  benchmarks.
  The group said it priced £400mn in senior secured notes
  that mature in 2023 to yield 8.375 percent and $520mn in similar
  securities that also come due in 2023 at 8.625 percent. The
  proceeds are to be used to retire £500mn in existing debt and
  help pay for the recently announced acquisitions of Ch
  
  Read more

• BP Marsh questions value of many InsurTech start-ups

  07-06-2017 00:35
  London-listed venture capital and private-equity investor BP
  Marsh & Partners has yet to be won over by InsurTech start-ups
  looking for financing, despite a ramping up in pitches it
  receives.
  Speaking to The Insurance Insider
  following the publication of its annual results, chief investment
  officer Dan Topping said that while the number of opportunities
  presented to BP Marsh was increasing, he has not seen much that
  appealed.
  "We do see lots of opportunities but we struggle to see how
  they..
  
  Read more

Follow @Insurance_UKnws on Twitter!