Insurance news

• Editor's comment: Je Suis Charlie

  13-01-2015 19:04
  
  Stephanie Denton Postonline
  
  
  On 7 January terrorists attacked free speech by shooting dead 12 innocent journalists and police at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
  
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• Watchdog report into Xchanging acquisition due in May

  13-01-2015 18:45
  The UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) will produce a
  report on its investigation into outsourcing firm Xchanging's
  acquisition of insurance software provider Agencyport Europe by 24
  May 2015, the watchdog said today (13 January).
  The full "phase two" investigation will look at
  whether a "relevant merger situation" has been created,
  and if so, whether the situation could result in a substantial
  lessening of competition in the UK, the CMA said.
  In a statement rel
  
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• Burns & Wilcox Canada acquires Canadian MGA Avec

  13-01-2015 18:45
  Kaufman Financial Group subsidiary Burns & Wilcox Canada has
  bought Canadian managing general agent Avec Insurance Managers, the
  company announced today (13 January).
  Avec was founded in 2004 by a group of Canadian insurance
  specialists with a focus on marine, inland marine and other
  commercial lines of business.
  The entire Avec team - including the company's four original
  partners, Stephen Oxley, Thomas Sampson, Patrick Barco and Martha
  Paz - will move over to Burns & Wilcox Canada.
  
  Read more

• Verizon renewal eliminates Sandy gains

  13-01-2015 17:38
  US open market property bellwether Verizon renewed on 1 January
  with double-digit rate reductions despite its value growing by 6
  percent, market sources told sister publication Inside
  FAC.
  It is understood that the telecommunications giant's
  programme renewed with rate decreases of 10-15 percent on certain
  lower layers and by an even larger reduction overall, sources
  said.
  Verizon is a flagship Aon account thought to have around $1bn of
  limit. The programme's total insured value increase
  
  Read more

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• UK minister reaffirms pledge to (re)insurance industry

  13-01-2015 17:38
  The UK government remains committed to making the London
  (re)insurance market as competitive as possible, a senior Treasury
  minister has said.
  Speaking at an Insurance Institute of London lecture held in the
  Lloyd's Old Library earlier this month, Economic Secretary to
  the Treasury Andrea Leadsom urged the London market to submit its
  specific mandates for change to the government ahead of the
  impending 2015 budget.
  "My message today is this: If you want to expand, we will
  help you to...
  
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• Tysers settles Heaney's unfair dismissal claim

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Tysers, the independent Lloyd's broker, has settled an
  unfair dismissal dispute brought by former COO Quintin Heaney after
  he was sacked in 2013.
  In August last year, an employment tribunal judge found that
  Heaney's dismissal from the almost-200-year-old Lloyd's
  broker was unfair.
  Heaney had claimed that he was sacked for blowing the whistle
  after the broker failed to make regulatory disclosures, but Judge
  Andrew Glennie dismissed the allegation.
  Heaney claimed that he had repeatedly
  
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• Tiering boosts major players at 1.1

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Despite the rating bloodbath at the 1 January renewals, there was
  some respite for second-tier global reinsurers, which may now see
  more business as cedants look to manage their counterparty credit
  exposure, senior broking executives have explained.
  The brokers revealed that the desire for diversification had
  grown by the 2015 renewals, and with it, so did the size of the
  panels sought by insurers.
  At last year's 1 January renewals, the tiering trend meant
  the lion's share of business fe
  
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• Soft market: cyclical or secular?

  13-01-2015 17:38
  The great unanswered - and probably unanswerable - question of
  this renewal is whether reinsurers are at a painful point in the
  cycle or at the start of a new unwelcoming epoch.
  Clearly, a period of benign loss experience has led to a
  long-run accumulation of capital that has created a supply-demand
  imbalance of the kind that has been seen before.
  In the face of that imbalance, hungry reinsurers are fighting
  over food that is not plentiful enough to go...
  
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• Reinsurers deal with Tria fall-out

  13-01-2015 17:38
  As the dust settles on the January renewal, reinsurers and brokers
  are still dealing with the fall-out of the initial non-renewal of
  the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (Tria) last month and the swift
  reauthorisation of the US terrorism backstop in the New Year.
  Some carriers, such as FM Global, were well-prepared for the
  possibility that the cogs of Congress would grind to a halt before
  a new legislative package to renew Tria could be agreed.
  This time last year the...
  
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• MetLife contests 'premature' Sifi designation

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Global life carrier MetLife has filed an appeal challenging the
  Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)'s designation of
  the group as a non-bank systemically important financial
  institution (Sifi).
  In a statement released today (13 January), MetLife said it was
  filing a suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia
  seeking to "overturn" the FSOC's decision.
  "FSOC's designation of MetLife is premature. FSOC has
  designated non-bank Sifis before the rule
  
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• Lloyd's new direction

  13-01-2015 17:38
  John Parry has a somewhat unusual position within EC3 in that
  he's in charge of investing more than £6bn worth of
  insurance funds.
  Having been confirmed as director of finance in December 2014 -
  a role he takes over from long-term incumbent Luke Savage, who left
  in July 2014 to take up the CFO role at UK life and pensions
  carrier Standard Life - Parry now faces one of the most challenging
  periods for insurance investment in living memory.
  Speaking...
  
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• Liberty Mutual secures 3-year cat capacity

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Liberty Mutual placed a tranche of three-year property catastrophe
  reinsurance cover as it took advantage of the ultra-soft property
  catastrophe market in the January renewals, The
  Insurance Insider has learned.
  Sources said that Liberty had upset a number of players in the
  market by pushing for a three-year element in its renewal, with a
  number of carriers in London declining it.
  It is understood that Liberty's catastrophe placement is now
  split between a one-year, two-year and three-year c
  
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• JLT predicts 'Darwinian' energy renewals

  13-01-2015 17:38
  JLT has warned the upcoming energy insurance renewal season will
  be the most "brutally Darwinian" since 1999 as the
  depressed oil price causes a retraction in demand just as capacity
  reaches a new high.
  In its quarterly energy newsletter, JLT said that the fall in
  oil price - now at a six-year low - would cause insureds to reduce
  budgets available for risk transfer.
  "Senior management of insurers have boosted the
  capacity to its highest point ever, just as the...
  
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• Interest lukewarm as Montpelier bid deadline nears

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Wall Street banks are struggling to find companies interested in
  participating in the Montpelier Re sales process as the deadline
  for first-round proposals approaches, The Insurance
  Insider understands.
  Multiple bankers canvassed by this publication said that it was
  proving difficult to stir up interest in Montpelier Re and secure
  buy-side mandates, with many of the Bermudians ruling out
  involvement in an auction.
  Sources said that the deadline for indicative bids is in the
  next couple of weeks,
  
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• Industry welcomes signing of Tria bill

  13-01-2015 17:38
  President Obama signed into law legislation earlier this month
  (12 January) to renew government terrorism backstop the Terrorism
  Risk Insurance Act (Tria) for six years, in a move roundly
  applauded by the (re)insurance industry.
  The Terrorism Risk Reauthorisation Act of 2015 (HR 26) was
  passed by a vote of 93 to four after near unanimous passage by the
  House of Representatives on 7 January.
  The rapid bipartisan resolution of the Tria renewal
  comes after a single outgoing senator blocked reauthor
  
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• Freddie Mac sues insurers for $111mn over $2.9bn fraud

  13-01-2015 17:38
  US government-sponsored domestic loan and mortgage company
  Freddie Mac is suing a number of insurers for more than $110mn
  after they refused to pay out over one of the largest frauds in US
  history.
  Freddie Mac has asked a New York District Court to rule that the
  19 insurers, including 10 Lloyd's syndicates, are required to
  pay out $111mn under a bond policy issued for financial
  institutions.
  The claim follows a "massive" $2.9bn fraud
  by one of Freddie Mac's distribution...
  
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• Debt vultures swoop as Towergate D-day approaches

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Despite raising the "for sale" sign almost two months
  ago, no buyers have appeared that are willing to take on
  Towergate's £1bn debt mountain.
  With a key 31 January coupon payment fast approaching, it seems
  a debt restructuring is increasingly inevitable, with the
  company's future depending on the investment firms that have
  been recently buying up its debt in the secondary markets.
  Funds managed by Apollo Global, Oaktree Capital and Centerbridge
  - three firms that all have
  
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• Convergence market share continues to expand

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Guy Carpenter has estimated that the convergence market grew by
  a third in 2014, rising from $45bn to $60bn in size.
  The broker estimated that it now provides 18 percent of total
  catastrophe limit, compared to a 15 percent share at the end of
  2013 (see graph). This helped overall industry capital levels rise
  from $322bn a year ago to $400bn.
  Reinsurance buyers bought moderately more catastrophe
  limits in response to lower prices, taking advantage of being able
  to buy...
  
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• Aon Benfield predicts further cat slump

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Global reinsurance broker Aon Benfield has predicted a continuation
  of the multi-year slump in US property catastrophe rates at the 1
  April, 1 June and 1 July 2015 renewals, The Insurance
  Insider has learned.
  Barring major loss activity and significant changes
  in exposures, the broker is expecting nationwide, commercial and
  Florida-exposed clients to achieve risk-adjusted discounts of
  between 7.5 and 12.5 percent this year. Aon Benfield also projected
  that client demand and retentions will remai
  
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• AlphaCat's ILS funds pass $1bn mark

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Validus subsidiary AlphaCat Managers has raised $409mn of new
  capital for its insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and renewed
  its sidecar, AlphaCat 2015, at $155mn.
  This takes AlphaCat's ILS funds past the $1bn mark, as it
  already managed $704mn of capital through these vehicles (including
  some from Validus).
  AlphaCat's overall assets under management now totals
  $1.7bn, including $580mn for the Paulson joint venture PaCRe.
  The company, which already ran two funds, last year launched
  
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• AGCS moves to radical multi-line agg structure

  13-01-2015 17:38
  Allianz Global & Corporate Specialty (AGCS) completed the
  second part of a transition from buying standalone risk covers to a
  single multi-line aggregate structure at 1 January, withdrawing
  substantial premium from the market, The Insurance
  Insider can reveal.
  The large corporate and industrial arm of Allianz had a
  reinsurance budget of around EUR1.1bn in 2013, although a share of
  this went into internal vehicle Allianz Re, which acts as a
  following market on its placements.
  Sources said tha
  
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• $150mn AmTrust capital raise 'voluntary': KBW

  13-01-2015 17:38
  AmTrust's $150mn share offering earlier this month is likely to
  stir further activity from short sellers seeking to paint a picture
  of a company facing a capital shortage.
  But analysts from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) said they
  believed the fundraising was "voluntary" and would help
  facilitate additional top-line growth, which would be a
  "long-term positive" for the US carrier.
  The insurer said on 7 January that it was undertaking a 3
  million share offering with a 3
  
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• Insurers' investment incomes at risk from Eurozone deflation

  13-01-2015 17:30
  
  Katie Marriner Postonline
  
  
  UK general insurers' investment incomes are in danger of being impacted by current Eurozone deflation that could hamper firms' overall results, according to industry experts.
  
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• Appointment for Hugh J Boswell

  13-01-2015 17:16
  Former-Aviva man joins broker’s Norwich office as it seeks to grow education and marine specialisms.
  
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• 'Modest' 2015 revenue growth for brokers: Barclays

  13-01-2015 16:23
  Insurance brokers can expect modest organic revenue growth in 2015
  thanks to relatively stable broker fees, according to research from
  Barclays' latest Commercial P&C Insurance Buyers Survey.
  Based on a survey of US and Canadian companies, Barclays analyst
  Jay Gelb explained that 75 percent of respondents expected broker
  fees to remain mostly unchanged at the early 2015 renewals.
  "As a result, we expect modest organic revenue growth for
  the largest insurance brokers in 2015, with pe
  
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• Penny Speed Meets... Cathy Taylor, head of commercial underwriting and operations, Ageas

  13-01-2015 15:06
  
  Penny Black Postonline
  
  
  Penny meets Ageas head of commercial underwriting and operations, Cathy Taylor
  
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• Penny Black’s Insurance Week - 15 January

  13-01-2015 14:54
  
  Penny Black Postonline
  
  
  Penny was among the insurance hacks walking the hallowed halls of Lloyd’s this week to meet City minister Andrea Leadsom MP.
  
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• Historic Child Abuse: Ensuring justice

  13-01-2015 14:49
  
  Peter Mann, director and CEO, Quest Partnership Postonline
  
  
  The increasing number of historic child abuse cases is placing new demands on public authorities, insurers and liability adjusters seeking the truth
  
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• Legal update: Mitigation actions could cut your losses

  13-01-2015 14:43
  
  Michael Burns, legal director, Hill Dickinson Postonline
  
  
  Michael Burns welcomes a court ruling on the effect of a claimant’s action in mitigation of their loss
  
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• Unoccupied Properties: Building an unoccupied checklist

  13-01-2015 14:35
  
  Bob Peterson, executive director, Thistle London Market Risks Postonline
  
  
  Unoccupied properties are a growing problem for insurers so what should brokers bear in mind when presenting information to underwriters?
  
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• Floods: One year on

  13-01-2015 14:29
  
  Veronica Cowan Postonline
  
  
  After the government announced properties
  in council tax bands H and I would be
  eligible for Flood Re, how are insurers
  prepared for future flood events and what
  have they learned since 2014?
  
  Read more

• Evidence for reinsurance reforms expected to centre around regulation and tax

  13-01-2015 14:29
  
  Mark Sands Postonline
  
  
  The cost of regulation, tax and immigration are the themes expected to come under the microscope following a plea for evidence on potential reinsurance reforms by City minister Andrea Leadsom MP.
  
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• Hastings-Bass joins BMS Group board

  13-01-2015 14:16
  
  Katie Marriner Postonline
  
  
  Novae non-executive chairman John Hastings-Bass is to join BMS Group as non-executive chairman and director.
  
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• Cinven buys Premium Credit for £462m

  13-01-2015 14:11
  Deal in 2012 valued firm at £900m.
  
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• Private equity house Cinven buys Premium Credit in £462m deal

  13-01-2015 14:05
  Buyer to turn premium finance firm into a ‘diversified specialty finance business’
  
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• Private equity house Cinven buys Premium Credit for £462m

  13-01-2015 14:05
  Buyer to turn premium finance firm into a ‘diversified specialty finance business’
  
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• Premium Credit snapped up by Cinven for £462m

  13-01-2015 13:59
  
  Katie Marriner Postonline
  
  
  European private equity firm Cinven is to acquire UK finance provider Premium Credit for £462m.
  
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• Ex-Gallagher international broking boss Hastings-Bass named as BMS chair

  13-01-2015 13:47
  John Hastings-Bass will also chair the BMS Risk and Compliance committee
  
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• Five trends for 2015: Looking to the future

  13-01-2015 13:40
  
  Francesca Nyman Postonline
  
  
  With 2014 receding into the distance, Post took a moment to consider which – if any – of the trends that emerged in 2014 will reach fruition in the next 12 months. Will Back to the Future’s vision of streets awash with hover boards become a reality? Will cars go driverless? According to our sources, these futuristic visions are sadly not to be. But that’s not to say that some emerging technologies which
  
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• Interview: Keith Bushnell: Positive mental health attitude

  13-01-2015 13:38
  
  Rachael Adams Postonline
  
  
  CEO Keith Bushnell has transformed HCML from a loss-making business to a profitable leader in the health and wellbeing market. He explains the firm’s approach to absence management and how to take a proactive approach to sickness in the workplace
  
  Read more

• Career Development: David Cameron visits Covéa offices to meet apprentices and graduates

  13-01-2015 13:28
  
  Mark Sands Postonline
  
  
  Covéa Insurance had the opportunity to showcase the insurance industry as a desirable profession, as Prime Minister David Cameron visited apprentices and graduates at the firm’s Halifax office.
  
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• Market Moves - 15 January 2015

  13-01-2015 13:17
  
  Callum Brodie Postonline
  
  
  All the latest job moves in the insurance market.
  
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• Hastings-Bass appointed BMS non-exec chairman

  13-01-2015 13:11
  Market veteran John Hastings-Bass has been appointed non-executive
  chairman and director of BMS Group, the Minova-owned broker
  announced today (13 January).
  He succeeds Christopher Hopton, who will remain chairman of
  Minova Insurance Holdings.
  Hastings-Bass will also chair the BMS risk and compliance
  committee. The appointment is subject to regulatory approval.
  Previously, Hastings-Bass was chairman, international at AJ
  Gallagher International (AJG) and chairman of its energy venture
  Alesco.
  Has
  
  Read more

• Fraud Focus: The key issues on the horizon

  13-01-2015 13:10
  
  Jamie Taylor, counter fraud director, DWF Postonline
  
  
  What measures, technology and legal reforms will be changing the landscape of fraud in 2015?
  
  Read more

• C-Suite - MGA: 2015: Back to reality

  13-01-2015 13:06
  
  Paul Upton, CEO, Evolution Underwriting Group Postonline
  
  
  A new phase of uncertainty kicks off 2015 with more woes in the Eurozone and a looming general election
  
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• C-Suite - Insurer: Reducing young road deaths

  13-01-2015 12:29
  
  Jon Dye, CEO, Allianz UK Postonline
  
  
  The next government must act to combat the biggest killer of 15 to 25-year-olds in the UK
  
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• Bishop Skinner Marine hires new managing director

  13-01-2015 12:27
  Paul Birch brings experience from Amlin and Devitt to the Bluefin subsidiary.
  
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• US and Bermudian reinsurer RoEs to slip into single-digits in 2015: AM Best

  13-01-2015 12:25
  Rating agency AM Best has predicted that challenging market
  conditions will squeeze US and Bermudian reinsurers' returns on
  equity (RoEs) to an average of 8.2 percent in 2015.
  This compares to a five-year average RoE of 10.4 percent for the
  sector - a mean that encompasses a cat-ridden 2011 during which
  many carriers produced net losses.
  In a new report on the reinsurance sector published last night
  (12 January), the rating agency explained that US and Bermudian
  reinsurers will find...
  
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• Covéa launches real estate product

  13-01-2015 12:19
  Product is aimed at commercial property owners for blocks of flats or light industrial premises.
  
  Read more

• Abbey Legal launches care product

  13-01-2015 12:12
  Abbey Legal creates product for UK care sector.
  
  Read more

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